THE SECONDARY EDUCATION GRANT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 12 August 1913, Page 5

THE SECONDARY EDUCATION GRANT.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l notice that you protest against the Trust Lands Trustees supplementing the salaries of the teachers of our secondary classes. At the same time you admit that I the salaries have been "disgracefully inadequate." I quite agree with you that it is the duty of the State to i provide the salaries that are neces■sary, but if the State neglects''its dutvy who suffers ? Is it simply the teachers ? Is it ,not the young people who should be receiving the best education possible at the. hands of a competent staff? The secondary classes at the Masterton District High School, have, up to the present, yielded satisfactory results, but there is a danger, if salaries are not assisted, that this will not continue. Some of our secondary teachers have secured positions with much better salaries Th primary schools, and the Education Board has had a lot of difficulty in filling the vacancies. If the Trustees can remedy this state of matters by a trifling grant amounting to no more than the value of an ordinary scholarship, are they not justified in doing so? So far, no. money whatever has been voted. The resolution of the Trustees only authorises a grant hot exceeding £SO. If salaries are improved by the State, as I trust they will be, .no vote for the •purpose specified may be required. But'the equipment of a good teachnical, and reference library for the use of our secondary students is a matter of importance and should recommend itself to everyone who takes an interest in the welfare of our young people, A moderate vote therefore to assist our secondary classes will, I maintain, be money well 1 am, etc., A. W. HOGG. [We hare no objection whatever to a vote being made for the provision of a reference library to assist scholars in the secondary classes. The State can hardly be expected to go this far, though we should be glad to see them providing the books necessary for primary education. The voting of <a sum of money from the Trust funds to subsidise teachers' salaries is quite another matter. Presumably, on the reasoning of Mr Hogg, if the State neglected to paint its-school, it would be the duty of the Trust to come to its rescue. We take an entirely different view. We maintain that it is the duty of the State to do these things, and we are pleased tp notice that the Reform {government is recognising its obligation in tiie matter.—Ed. Age.]