Log-rolling and Salaries.

Observer, Volume X, Issue 603, 24 January 1891, Page 9

Log-rolling and Salaries.

In the disoußsion, at the Educational Institute, concerning the all-important question of salaries, only two of the Auckland teachers ventured to open their mouths — Messrs. Stewart and J. L. Scott. The former spoke in a manly and outspoken style, and with honest scorn referred to the ' undue multiplication of small schools throughout the length and breadth of the land ' ; and very properly urged • that people should protest against the log- rolling, which brought such a state of things into existence.' Other teachers from outside Auckland district spoke in a somewhat similar strain ; but notwithstanding that our Board is the greatest of all sinners in that respect, no change for the better is at all likely, since it appears that nothing can dislodge from their seats the present members, who have perpetrated the disgraceful logrolling, which once again we earnestly denounce as a public shame, a scandal, and an extravagance of publio money. Mr Scott, of Avondale, remarked ' that there appeared to be a disposition on the part of some of the members of the Auckland Board of Edncation to reduce the salaries of the headmasters ; but he believed that if the question was fairly considered, it would be found that there were no grounds for such a step.' (Hear, hear, from Messrs. Worthington, Upton and Oarr.) He was referring of course to Mr Udy, who is now looked upon as the ttte noir of the town headmasters — men who, with salaries of £400 or £500, being 'friends,' good for nothing old fossils as they almost all are, go into violent rage at the mere mention of the word salaries. His belief that 'no grounds could be found for reducing such salaries ' is rather difficult to comprehend, when it is recollected that the very members who successfully prevented Mr Udy from moving even haltingly in the direction of fixing salaries by merit, which meant retrenchment of the large salaries, found very good grounds for retrenching the £30 formerly paid to the pupil teachers down to £20 ; and to which Mr Carr now about to retire, but only to be re-elected, refers in his circular with pardonable pride and complacency. The said belief of Mr J. Lyon Soott, of Avondale, appears to us incomprehensible ; but probably had we lived in close proximity to that institution known as ♦ the Whau,' at Avondale, we should find ourselves and our environment growing into a receptivity of some very strange beliefs, and the dreaming of some very strange dreams, though not more strange nor abßurd than the belief of Mr J. Lyon Scott, of Avondale, about the no grounds for retrenching the salaries of £300, £400 and 500 a year. Had some members, his friends, been quite successful in their attempt some time ago, an enlightened teacher would not now be living at Avondale, so near j the Whau, and there would be found, not probably, but certainly, very sufficient and good grounds for enlarging or doubling his present quantum of the pelf or lucre. But fraudulent devices, even by pretended good, saintly ] and ostentatiously religious persons, do not always succeed. Perhaps Mr J. L. Scott will yet adopt that strange belief also. j To violate the law so flagrantly as to rank a D 2 genius above other candidates in D 1 and in C 3 ranks, was a very • just ' proceeding, and could only be done by a very • just ' Board ; but to secretly withhold from the eyes of the school committee not only without any reason whatever, but against every reason, and the slightest notion of decency or justice, the name of a superior candidate, considered * dangerous ' to that D 2 genius, was one of those shockingly unfair doings that has often made an upright man to loathe and despise not only the perpetrators of such villainy but also the human race. It is very difficult indeed to believe that any body of men, either public or private amongst us would do such a thing ; but yet it is a fact, a shocking fact— undeniable, and demonstrable. Of this we have said enough for the present. Time, place, and names will all appear in a full narrative of the foul transaction, now red-lettered for immediate preparation.