TEACHERS’ SALARIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12541, 1 July 1901, Page 4

TEACHERS’ SALARIES.

The amended scale of salaries placed before the Teachers’ Salaries Commission by the Secretory for Education shows that the belated organisation of women teachers has ant been without its effect on the Education Department, but the new scale cannot yet be considered satisfactory, We have no space to examine it in detail, and a close investigation may reveal excellences and iniquities at present unsuspected 1 , but. in. its treatment of assistants, at least, it is certainly an advance on the scale first suggested by the Department. A great deal -will depend, of course, on the manner in winch the schools are staffed, but at first sight it looks as though Mr Hogben has recognised the principle of equality of opportunity and that he has no sympathy with the idea that women are incapable of managing the higher standards. : But he has evidently accepted the illogical .arguments cf the male teachers regarding ■.equality of payment. He .would give r equal pay for equal burdens,” whatever (that may mean. From the fact that the salary' of a first assistant in a school of i 460 children is set down at £240 for a 5 nan or £l9O for a woman., we gather that these “burdens” are something altogether tmconnected with school work. If Mr jlogben regards beard and lodging, clothes, holidays and university training ,4s “ burdens,” then ji is sheer 'folly to:

suppose they are heavier,for,mm than for women. If a wife is a “ burden,” then the State should save money by stipulating that all teachers should be single. The idea that the State should pay a teacher more money simply because he might get married and have a family is so silly that if we did not know what selfish creatures men are we should doubt their sanity. Of course, if “ equal pay for equal burdens ” is to be the rule of life, the man with fourteen children and a widowed mother should receive about five times the salary of a single roan, and if one Department of the State recognises its liability for the support of these “burdens,” then every married man. in the community has a claim against the country, and we shall have to draft a scheme of pensions for the married. Generally speaking, the salaries in Mr Hogben’® new scale are a substantial increase on those at present ruling in North Canterbury, but they are calculated on. the £4 capitation, and we have no doubt that the Boards could have distributed the additional money in quite as satisfactory a way. W® or® not crying out against the colonial system of staffs and salaries, the advantages of' which are undeniable, hut we think 'the teachers are convinced by this time that an excellent system may be very badly handled.