TEACHERS' SALARIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20323, 2 August 1929, Page 16

TEACHERS' SALARIES.

Sir,—l see that, for n second time, tha Auckland branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute has discussed «tho proposed salary scale, and I am pleased to see that its management committee's effort to foist acceptance of compulsory transfer on its members has failed. Tha committee consulted the Railway and Post Office Staff Associations for tion. Did it not occur to the cornnftttea that there is no reasonable comparison possible ? Is it possible to compare our 2000 country schools i emote from the rail with country railway stations ? Does the Post Office maintain public servic« staffed offices in the remote districts ? Did. the Auckland delegates who attended the Inst annual conference tell the members that the grading list would be ignored in making transfers? The effect of the compulsory transfer system would, in the main, "be that all those teachers who are now in the country would stay there, especially so if the department is to pay all transfer expenses. I have always maintained that the teachers have always spoiled their own chances of having transfer expenses paid by exaggerating th» cost. I understand from an official of tho Railway Department that tho rate on bona-fide household removals'is about £6 10s a ton from Wellington to Opua, The majority of the teachers are satisfied with their salaries, and most of the talk about the computing of individual salaries is merely propaganda. There may be ai difficulty in original interpretations of new regulations, but even that can be removed. The majority of teachers, too, have supported the Headmasters' Association in its effort to obtain better conditions of pay for its members, and to that'extent hava approved the suggestion that a new scale was necessary: but only to that extent. What has this support earned ? Betrayal by the Headmasters' Association! In spite of definite statements by both, tho Director of Education and tho Minister, that no more money would be available for teachers' salaries, this association has taken care to place before (lie Minister of Education statements and figures to show how, in its estimation, certain country head teachers, and also some assistant teachers, are being paid at too high a rate in comparison with headmasters. Tho result is the new scale, which gives to grade 30. 4. 6 and 7 headmasters, and takes particularly from g. -de 2 male assistants and all women. It looks almost as if a copy of the Swinburne Circular, if it can be called such, had been handed to the department with tho request "Please cut as indicated." My estimate of the position, if the scheme was in full operation to-day, is that the head piasters concerned and mentioned in detail above would receive an aggregate increase of £3500, but that the rest of the teachers of the Dominion would receive an aggregate cut of £55,000, of which the assistant masters would lose about £203)00 and tba womeu tho rest. A.M. 2-