TEACHERS’ SALARIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 210, 11 September 1901, Page 3

TEACHERS’ SALARIES.

MEETING OF THE WOMEN,

By Telegraph—Pres3 Association,

Wellington, last night-

A meeting of women scfhool teachers was held to-day to consider the proposed colonial scale of salaries, and it was resolved to form an association to improve the status of female teachers, llcsolutions were passed approving of tho introduction of tho colonial scale, viewing with disapproval the giving of all the highest positions to men; asserting that in the interests of education girls in the higher Standards should be taught by women ; and that in schools where the average attendance exceeds 700, tho school should bo divided into separate departments, viz., infants, girls and boys, each under a responsible head.

From tho mass of evidence accumu

lated on tho subject, it is abundantly apparent that the female teacher's of the colony do their allotted task ns well as the males, that they are better fitted to in-

struct the very young idea, and that they are moro cheerful and uncomplaining in the execution. In spite of contentions to tho contrary, tho femaio teacher frequently wears better, and withstands the physical and mental strain of instructing better, than the male. She neither drinks herself on to the sick-list, or damages herself in the football field, she accepts unhesitatingly the rudnoss of oftentimes puerile Boards without tho masculine grumble, and is, in all respects, intellectual attain-

meats being equal, of equal use to the department. Why then, in tho “ scale ” recently substituted for a still moro iniquitous one, docs she not receive similar advantages to the male ? We have a ease in our mind in which the lady assistant of a large up-country school, with qualifications equal to the headmaster, receives £l5O less than he, for

instructing double the number of children. The master has the usual residence, but the assistant, his intellectual equal, and who certainly does two-thirds of the works, puts in a precarious existence in a setter’s house, paying heavily for the privilege. —Frpc Lance.