TEACHERS SUPERANNUATION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13645, 13 July 1908, Page 2

TEACHERS SUPERANNUATION.

DISCUSSION BY CONTRIBUTORS. A meeting, of the South Canterbury District Educational Institute, was held oil 1 Saturday afternoon, to consider the q'ltis--lioii ol ouperannuation. ihere were pi escnt between 30 and 10 " contributors "■ ; to the teachers sujieraiinuation tund, and Mr Tht/s. Hughes, a member of the Superannuation Board, came down, from christchurch to afford information. / Mr Menzies, president, briefly introduced the visitor, and then called on some ordinary business of the branch, which occupied only a couple of minutes. ~ , Mr Valentine then opened the businecs of the meeting. When the civil service superannuation scheme was introduced last the teachers, seeing that it offered better terms than their own scheme, asked the' Premier to permit them to come under it. Sir Joseph Ward agreed 10 this, and the necessary clause passed the lower House, but was withdrawn by the Attorney-General in the Upper House, for some reason, with a promise that the matter should not be lost sight of, : and the Governor's speech the other day foreshadowed some legislation on the subject. Before long, therefore, the teachers might be called upon to vote upon the question of joining the public service scheme, and in order that they might give an intelligent, vote, this meeting had been called to consider the two schemes, and Mr Hughes would be able to give them some valuable information. Mr Vaien ine had distributed in print a comparison he had made between the civil service and the teachers' superannuation schemes, under separate heads of rates of benefits, re.iring medically „unfit, benefits to widows, and Government contributions, and he illustrated the important point of "benefits" bv numerous examples worked out for each scheme. His conclusion wa6 that if .liey were granted the same terms as the civil .servants, it would be better for ihe teachers to come under the civil service bchenie, though there wa6 a small minority of cases in which the teachens' scheme gave greater benefits. Mr Hughes, who followed, explained that' Dr Fiiidlay withdrew the clause la.st session on account off a difficulty in dealing with discontinuous service, the pub.ic service scheme demanding con.inuous service. He was pleased to find that. members of Parliament were in favour of eqiiiil benefits, and he read replies 'from all the North Canterbury M.P.'s, in favour of; or sympathising with the teachers' request. Mr Hugheg compared the'contributions and benefits in the (several \exist-. ing rsctieme:— railway, police, ..tetk-'iiers and civil servant!!, showing that the teacheis' scheme wais le.-s liberal than others in the way of benefits. • In the civil service cadetship was counted - as service, in • tie teachers scheme, pupil teacheiship wa--not. The chief point in favour, of the teacher*' scheme was. the minimum retiring allowance of £1 a. week. It would be a measure of economy for the Government to give i!lO,O0O a year to the fund, because that would be an inducement to better men to join the profession. The Government were liberally assisting the. civil service scheme, and . the work of a teacher was of at least equal value to the State, to that of a clerk. He instanced the case of a constable at a country town whoi>e life was one long hoij.-iiy (teachers w <re. twitted about the number of their holidays) retired the other day on £9j a year, i lie highest re.iring allowance yet granted to a teacher was under £IOO, a civil servant on ; the same salary would get £2!sU. It was understood that the Government desired tp subsidise all forms of thrift, and the teachers .superannuation -flrap <tse form. The teachers had put aside £62,000 in two years, and that was a satisfactory amount of saving. In reply, to questions Mr Hughes said there would be some provision for dealing with cases of teachers who retired for a time "medically unfit" and then returned to duty. It was not probable that, those who had retired already -would be allowed to participate in any increased benefits; any amendment of the sclieme would not be made retrospective. The case of teachers who broke their service for a couple of years in order to attend the University, was one of the difficulties

in the way of bringing the teachers under public service, bClieinv, aw 'tliis requiied continuous '-.service.. He , -jidmitted that there were cases virbich the present scheme would suit better. Mr Hughes, answered a few other questions and comments, and"-then said that they could not come to any decision until they saw the Bill .which was foreshadowed in the Governor's-.speech. It. would probably be ail amendment of , their own scheme, not a new one " picking the eyes out" of both. It had been frequently said, that the police fund was actuarily unsound, and it had been said of the rest-; but the teachers* scheme was the Roundest of the lot. Summing up his opinion at the request of a member, Mr Hughes said tnat so lar. as he hau studied vile question mid lie- had given it a good deal of attention, he had no hesitation in saying ihat the benefits under ti.e public serviccseheme were greater than those under the teachers' scheme; and he said this though personally he was one of those who would be a loser by the change. In reply to further questions Mr Hughes said they must wait, for the Bill to learn whether pupil teacliership would count as service. The word '' shall" meant shall in the clause for compulsory retirement at 6o; but- the question was who wais to apply the compulsion. The Superannuation board would not do it; the Boards would not do it if a man had still good work in him; and the amount of retiring allowance was not enough ta> induce a man to retire so long as lie* could do his work. If a decent retiring vided, " shall" should mean " shall. In England the difficulty was got over by issuing retiring certificates at 65 only. . The discussion was brought to , a close by the carrying of the following'resolution, moved by Messrs Valentine and RockeW That this meeting of contributors to the Teachens' Superannuation Fund respectfully request, the, Prime Minister to introduce this session such legislation as will secure to the teachers the same benefits as are accorded by othersuperannuation schemes of the Dominion, and that our local members of Parliament be asked to urge upon the Government the. introduction of such legislation and to support it when"'introduced." In acknowledging a vote of thanks for having come from Christchurch to assist the contributors of this district, Mr Hughes advised them to get a copy of the Bill as soon as it was available and study it carefully, and he would be glad to come down again to discuss it.