PENSIONS FOR PROFESSORS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7140, 30 May 1910, Page 1

PENSIONS FOR PROFESSORS

SUPERANNUATION PARTICIPATION IN TEACHERS' SCHEME WANTED. SPECIAL TO THE “ TIMES.'* CHRISTCHURCH, May 29. There is still a strong: feeling among university professors in New' Zealand that they ought to be allowed to participate in tho teachers’ su p can n uat ion (scheme. Early next session steps will be taken to bring their case before the Government by a deputation representing tho university colleges. Tho professors have gone thoroughly into the position, and they have prepared arguments which they believe establish their claim for participation in the benefits of the scheme. A Canterbury professor explained to a reporter that they point out, in the first place, tlmt all professors are now pensioned in Australian, American, and the new English universities, and that New Zealand professors have a special claim, since tbe pensioning of teacners. They feel the injustice of being pointedly excluded when every other class of public servant, from the judge on the Supreme Court E-coach to the postman and the railway porter, is provided with a pension. They urge that it cannot fairly be argued that the pay of professors and lecturers is so high as to exclude them properly from the benefits of the scheme. The average pay of a professor when appointed at thirty year's of age, or probably more, is hardly *£69o a year. Men in the much higher ranks of tire Civil Service receive more than, that. A judge’s pay is much higher. Besides that, a man who is appointed to the Supreme Court Bench is usually a lawyer who has been in receipt of a good income for some time. The case of the “university’s lecturers is even stronger than that of the professors, as they seldom receive ‘ *£2oo a year. It is not .merely a question of money. If they are set free from, the necessity of making money for their old ago they can give their time entirely to the service of the colleges. ; Their work unfits them for financial enterprise, and their expenses axe heavy, as they have to keep up some stylo and spend a good deal on books. They contend that th© Teachers’ Superannuation Act itself admits that the , position of professor should not exclude a man from the benefits of tho fund, for it expressly provides that any teacher contributing to tho teachers’ fund and being appointed a professor or lecturer may continue on the fund. It has been urged that there would bo a rush of old professors on to tho fund, which would b© crippled, but a glance at a table drawn up at Canterbury College shows that, according to th© usual actuarial calculation, there would never be more than two professors receiving pensions during the next twenty-throe years, except- in the two years 1920-21, when there would be three, and 1927-23, when there would be four. If the professors ‘and lecturers, were allowed to participate in the teacher’s’ scheme it is believed that the fund would benefit Largely by heavy contributions, and would have no serious burden inflicted upon it, and thp Government subsidy would bo a mere. trifle, being only .£375 a year. The’tables drawn up by the Canterbury professors show in detail the effect of the extension of the teachers’ scheme to include them. It is only possible, as in the teachers’ case, to suppose that all will contribute and to calculate by averages in some things. The number of professors is thirtythree, the average age of appointment is taken as just under thirty years, the average term of service is thirty-five years, the average age at the present time is between thirty-five and forty years, the average expectation of life is forty years, the average salary is .£7OO, the average pension would be .£410,, the average annual contribution of existing professors .£SO each, the total annual contributions of existing professors - .£1650, Government annual contribution ■ *£375, and the annual contribution of each, professor appointed after the first pensioner's in 1912 .£35.

The question dealt with in the foregoing has not yet been considered by the professorial board of Victoria College.