7

1.—13b.

18. Taking the example of a school with an average of 41 : Formerly the salary was £165, with £20 house allowance. It will be increased to from £180 to £210. What will be about the average for that grade?—l think about £200. 19. In the next grade, with a school of 82 pupils, the salary was £215, with a house allowance of £30. Now the salary will be £210 to £240, with £30 house allowance, say, £15 difference?— Yes. 20. Is it not true that as the salaries increase promotions will be fewer, so that the average salaries will approximate to the maximum! — It will not affect that grade very much, as the number of positions in that grade were only 105 altogether. Therefore the number of candidates for higher positions would not be very large from that. The number would not be likely to be more than fifteen in any year. 21. Now as to staffing: Was a pupil-teacher given when the average attendance reached 91 under the old system?— Yes. 22. Now under the new scheme a second assistant is given at 81, allowing the adults to do less work? —I do not know whether they will do less work. I hope they will be able to do considerably more work when these pupil-teachers go out. 23. In a school of 132 what was the salary? —£235. And the house allowance? —£30. 24. Under the new rate teachers will receive from £240 to £270, with a house allowance of £35 ?_Yes. 25. In a school of 201 the master will begin at £270 and increase to £310?— Yes. 26. And he will receive a house allowance of £40?— Yes. 27. The old rates were £265, with a house allowance of £35? —Yes. 28! What will be the average salary in this grade?— Probably £300—£295 to £300—after six or seven years, when the system becomes steady, or the scheme is in thorough working-order. 29. In the school of 302 the former salary is £290, with a house allowance of £40. The new schedule provides for a house allowance of £45 and a salar\- of from £310 to £340. What would be the average for that?— Call it £330. 30. With regard to tin- next grade, what is the advantage over the old system in respect to masters' salaries: take the master of a school of 502?— That is Grade 9b. I should like to point, out that within the same grade the salary of the teacher does not alter at all, so it does not matter whether you take any one subgrade within a grade. 31. Take the master of a school of 502?— He now gets a salary of £330, together with a house allowance of £50. He would get a salary that began at £340 a year and increased to a maximum of £370 a year by annual increments of £5. 32. That is, an average of £360 with the same allowance in lieu of residence?— Yes, of £360 with the same allowance of £50, where there is no house. 33. How many grades are there now for schools above 600?— Ten. 34. In a school of 601, instead of a salary of £360 the master now begins with £370, rising to £400?— That is so. 35. Coming to the staffing of the schools, under this new scheme the pupil-teachers will gradually disappear and be replaced by assistant teachers? —Yes. 36. How do you intend to keep up the supply of teachers? —Under any circumstances which might happen ? 37. Yes?—lf we can get into the way of supplying teachers as they do now in some other parts of the world, where the teachers are extremely well trained, we shall not need to have either pupilteachers or probationers, but shall admit them from high schools or district high schools straight into the training colleges, so that those in the training colleges will have received a good secondary education before they enter. It is possible to do that when any child in any part of the country can get his secondary education. That is nearly the case at present, but not quite. If, however, we cannot fill up our training colleges from the secondary schools, and find that the supply of teachers is likely to become short, we can have probationers in the schools, who will not be responsible in the way pupil-teachers often are, unfortunately, now—sometimes unavoidably—but who will be there for the two purposes of having their own teaching-powers tested, and of finding whether they have a real inclination, after experience, for the teaching profession. The probationer system will not weaken the staffing of schools, because the schools will be fully staffed with adults independently of any probationers whatever. The probationers will be introduced, if introduced at all, to a certain extent, simply for the sake of giving a supply of teachers. They would then go on to the training colleges as pupil-teachers go on now, if they were, found to be suitable after that period of probation. 38. They will be paid for the services mentioned in accordance with regulations to be made under the Act, which prescribes no special salaries for probationers?— You may not need probationers at all. You may find it necessary only to have them in the schools for a year, and I do not see how you can lay down an order, which may have to be varied according to circumstances, except by regulation. 39. They will not affect the number of trained teachers? —Not at all. 40. Now, as to allotting adult teachers to schools under this scheme : one will be allotted to each class of 40?— Classes do not always divide themselves exactly according to averages. You cannot take a school from the infant class as upwards, divide the number by 6, and say that every class shall be one-sixth of the total. 41. What is the average in large schools? —In large schools the average will be over 40—up to 47 or 48. 42. Am I right in saying that in America they have one teacher to every 47 or 48?— It depends upon what part of America you refer to, whether to the Eastern States, or Southern States,