UNIVERSITY SYSTEM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 16 April 1945, Page 3

UNIVERSITY SYSTEM

DR. HARROP’S VIEWS y “SET-UP BEGINNING TO GET SOMEWHAT OUT OF DATE” Dunedin, April 12. Conditions of housing for country school teachers in Southland were strongly criticised by Dr. A. J. Harrop, editor of “New Zealand News,” London, who is gathering material about educational conditions during his present visit to New Zealand. In an interview this morning Dr. Harrop said his observations had not in any way raised his opinions of those lesponsible for the present state of affairs. "Teachers’ houses,” he said, ‘ seem to be worse than the schools. In one place a teacher, his wife and two young children live in three rooms, none of which has an open fireplace. Whoever planned this imposing edifice should be condemned to live in it I heard of one other house, allegedly condemned when Victoria was still Queen, but still in use. It makes it hard to uphold New Zealand on the other side of the world ay a piogressive country when her teachers are badly paid and so often indifferently housed.” he added. Speaking of university matters, Dr. Harrop' said he had formed the impression that the whole set-up of the university system in New Zealand was beginning to get somewhat out of date. Ke felt that something ought to be done to raise the status of individual university colleges. A full-time academic head was necessary for each of the colleges. "A drastic revision of salaries of university staffs, particularly of lecturers, must be made quickly,” Dr. Harrop said. Standards would inevitably fall unless university salaries were raised to a reasonable standard. Already first-class men had been attracted away from New Zealand, and the loss of them could not be afforded by the educational institutions of the Dominion. —P.A.