1.—13 a.

10

[n. coad

sixteen to twenty years, and are capable and certificated. They have bad town and country experience. The ninth assistant, who reaches a maximum of £1 10 in two years time, has been teaching for about thirteen years, and shorthand-writers and fypistcs in Government Departments gets £160 in eight years. There are about thirty-seven schools in this grade. This means that, approximately, 148 teachers in this particular type of school alone do not benefit. Type 2, Grade lVc, upper assistants: Karori—The head teacher gains nothing on his maximum; the first assistant gains £10; the second assistant gains £15. bower assistants: Third and fourth assistants gain nothing by new Bill. In this school, therefore, two teachers do not benefit, one of whom is a teacher of over sixteen years standing, with town and country experience. There are about thirty-four such schools, making a total of sixty-eight who do not benefit in this type of school. Type 3, tirade 111b, mostly found in the country: One teacher in the lower grade does not benefit. There are 127 Buch schools, and therefore 127 such teachers who do not benefit. So in these three types of schools alone 343 teachers receive no benefit. Similar results will be obtained when the propose.! scale is applied to schools in the other grades. As a rule it will be found that the lower assistants will liciiefit little or not at all. In some eases they lose—for example, sixth assistant in Grade Vlb drops from £150 to £110 16s. As a remedy for this state of affairs I would suggest that the maximum of Grade II be made £180 instead of £120, thus eliminating Grade 111, and that teachers of ten years' exp< ri< nee and over be put at the maximum in Grade II (£180). Resolutions to this effect have already been passed at the Wellington District Institute, and the New Zealand Educational Institute has affirmed the principle. Such a course will spell greater efficiency and content in the service, and will attract a greater number into the profession. At present, as Principals of training colleges tell us. the supply of teachers does not equal the demand. 3. Mr. Hoyben.] You have referred to several classes of asistants, those at £100 to £120? —Yes, in some cases. 4. Are you aware that the number now at that stage is 1,295, inking all the teachers in all classes, and that the number at £100 to £120 is only 257 under the Bill, so that all the others must get promoted to other places: are- you aware of that?— No. Might I say that I have taken some trouble to ascertain these figures, and I have found that about 78 per cent, of the women teachers are in those Grades I and 11, of £140 and less.

Janet A. Finlayson examined. (No. 4.) 1. The Chairmna.] Whom do you represent?— The Women Teachers' Association, Wellington Branch. 2. Do you wish to make a statement to the Committee in reference to the Bill we are nowconsidering?—Yes. In giving evidence before the Kducation Committee 1 wish to deal with a few of the anomalies that occur in the Education Bill now before the Committee. The points to which I would draw attention are—(1) 'Ihe difference between the cost of educating boys when compared with that of educating girls, as shown in the schedule dealing with the salaries paid to teachers in separate boys', girls', and infant schools. (Schedule VI, Part 11. (i) and (ii)); (2) the difference in the grades of salaries of assistants in relation to their relative positions on the staffs of schools; (3) the anomaly which allows a teacher transferred from one position to another to suffer loss of salary thjough such transfer. Taking those points in order—(1) The difference between the cost of the eduoati if boys as compared with that of girls and of infants : Comparing a Grade Yin boys' school with a Grade Vlb girls' or infants' school (Sixth Schedule. Part 11, (i) and (ii), and taking in each case the minimum salaries of the teachers in these respective schools, we find that (a) the salary of the head teacher in the separate boys' school is £110 mere than the salary of tin- head teacher in the separate gills' or infants' schools of equal grades; (6) the total amount of the salaries paid in the boys' school is £340 above that of the salaries paid in the girls' or infants' school, of equal grade. The education of girls and infants, one would infer from the above, facts, is of less importance for the welfare of the nation than the education of boys, and in consequence can lie paid for at a cheaper rate. (2) The difference in the grades of salaries of assistants in relation to their relative positions on the staffs of schools ; In Grade Vb, Vla, b, VIIa, B schools the second assistant drops two grades below the first assistant in salarj-. For some inexplicable reason this does not happen in schools of Grades Vc and Yd. In these two grades of schools the second assistant drops one grade only. It seems an anomaly that whereas the third assistant in all schools of Grades Y. VI. and VII receives the same salary as the second assistant, on the other hand the second assistant is, in all but Vc and Vn schools, placed two grades below the first assistant. The hist ami second assistants in our larger schools both occupy very responsible positions—positions which involve many duties besides actual classteaching—yet while the third assistant is paid a salary equal to that of second assistant, the second, with extra responsibilities and duties, receives a salary two grades below that of first assistant. (3.) The anomaly which allows a teacher transferred from one position to another to suffer loss of salary through such transfer: In the Education Bill, Part VI, section 67, we read, " The transfer of a teacher may lie made in any one of the three cases following : (6.) In any case where the efficient conduct of any school appears in the opinion of the Board to require such transfer." The efficient conduct of a school may. I take it, mean, among other things, a due balance of male and female teachers, and not merely the efficiency of any particular teacher likely to be transferred. A school grade Va rises to Grade Vn. The first assistant's salary in such school rises from Grade IV to Grade V, but the second assistant's salary remains Grade 3. According to clause (b) quoted above a transfer is effected. The first assistant of Grade Va