RETRENCHMENT AT THE WRONG END.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21244, 27 January 1931, Page 6

RETRENCHMENT AT THE WRONG END.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Another injustice has been perpetrated by the Government upon a worthy section of the community by the reduction of the salary payable to probationers and Training College students in the teaching profession. I nave served a lifetime in the Government service, not in the teaching profession, and can see in this latest move another old trick to “ kill the goose that laid the golden egg.” These young people who have qualified by much study, sacrificing pleasure, and purchasing books, _ etc., are, at their entry upon a great calling, called upon to submit to a reduction in salary, while the cost of living away from home is in no way reduced. It is inevitable that this decree has gone forth from Government servants who are immune from a “ cut ”in their high salary. If the teaching profession inculcates in those who join its ranks the force of example, then let those in receipt of a salary above what is considered a comfortable or fair income have their salary reduced first, and then expect the students and probationers to fall in with the example thus set in the Dominion’s hour of need. There is a widespread feeling that the sacrifice called for on the part of all in receipt of incomes should be made pro rata _on such income, and it is a monstrous injustice to call upon the youth of our land in the teaching profession to submit to » reduction of £5 per annum from an. already scanty wage, while many in receipt of incomes or wages beyond their worth for services rendered make little or no sacrifice. I expect that this protest will be replied to by some skilled in the art of expressing themselves, as interested parties, but whether of > high or low social rank, " fair play is bonny play under the British flag, and I hope the present memorandum to young teachers will be withdrawn, and forwarded to those better able to meet the position.— I am, etc., INJUSTICE.