1.—13 a.

68

[c. c. hunter.

so that their children could receive the benefit of city education ? Now I wish to deal with the aspect presented by the raising of the first female teacher equal with the second male assistant in the larger schools. Certainly they are teachers of greater experience, but you wish to pay on work as well as on service, and as far as the responsibility of the mistress is concerned the headmaster must shoulder that responsibility. I have in my hand a sheaf of papers that a first or a second assistant must correct at night. This is a sheaf consisting of a week's work which I had in my school. I ask you how much of this kind of work has the mistress in a school to do? 2. Mr. Hogben.] You contend that D is badly treated as compared with E?—Yes. 3. What increase of salary does D get as regards the maximum?—£lo. 4. Is not that the new one, £230 to £250?— Yes. 5. What was the old one?—£2lo to £240. 6. £180 to £210, you mean?—No; in that school it was £210 to £240. It is just over the 600. 7. Is D necessarily fixed to that position?—Where is the opportunity to come from for him to receive promotion 1 8. Supposing they considered him more fit than E, so long as they did not lower E's salary could they not transfer the two?—l am taking it that under the new Bill a gentleman of twenty years' service should receive a little more salary than a gentleman of eight years' service who had not been trained for the profession. 9. The Board has already considered them equal in giving them positions almost equal? — Not necessarily. D could have gone in for many country schools that are now placed high, but he had already gone through them. 10. Is it not an advantage to teachers to reduce the number of grades of schools to as few as possible?— Yes; but the putting-up of two-thirds of a grade and leaving the other third in the lower grade has caused great dissatisfaction and distress, because those teachers are practically disrated. 11. Have you ever tried to redistribute ten grades into seven ?—I submit it is utterly impossible to do so justly and fairly. That is our reason for saying that our Inspectors should be given authority—and the Male Assistants' Association would be satisfied with that authority — to grade the teachers as they have found them. 12. Does not the Bill give power to grade the teachers under the Dominion system?-—Yes, but what will those teachers be graded? Will they be graded 1, 2, 3? Will a man be a number, or will he be a teacher ? We have four Inspectors in Otago, and they know each man and woman most intimately. 13. Would you object to their being graded on service, academic attainments, and efficiency, and promoted according to that grading?—No; but supposing it was found that G, who had been six months out of the training college, and who will receive £190 to £220, was receiving too much, could you take him down? 14. The salary of no teacher will be reduced. lam asking you to say whether all this would not be done away with by a Dominion system of grading and promotion?— Yes; but the fear is that you would grade a good deal on the salary a man would receive by the new Bill. 15. Mr. Sidey.] Do you suggest that the words " must be a woman " should be deleted from the Sixth Schedule with regard to one of the first two assistants in any school of Grades IV, V, VI, or VII ?—Yes. The Male Assistants' Association strongly support that. The Institute, however, has passed a motion that the mistress of a school and the second male assistant should be on the same basis. I can give a reason for that motion being passed by the Institute. There is a great preponderance of female teachers over male teachers in the Institute. 16. If you are not going to have a system under which payment is based on efficiency and service, you wish it to be based on the roll number and not on the average attendance?—Yes. If we cannot have full justice at present we would like part justice. 17. Mr. McCallum.] Are these two teachers, E and G, who will be in better positions than F and D, particularly brilliant teachers?—E is a particularly hardworking teacher. Of G I know nothing; he is too young a teacher to have proved his ability or inability. 18. Have they not Seen favoured by the Board?— No. E was in charge of a two-teacher school, and he transferred for some reason with the first assistant of a Dunedin suburban school, which has since been raised a grade. When E was transferred to the suburban school as first assistant the position was £180-£2lO. Ihrough a rise in average attendance the school rose a grade, and E's salary is now £210-£240. It is about eleven months since this exchange of positions took place. He is a particularly hardworking and earnest man, but there are plenty of other teachers in the same position who have not been so fortunate.

John Conollt, Member of the Marlborough Education Board, examined. (No. 28.) 1. The Acting-Chair man (Mr. Statham).] You have a statement to make, I understand?—l only want to say that I was asked to come here because I happened to be coming on other business connected with Blenheim. I have really nothing to say, except that I agree with the evidence already given by Mr. John Duncan with regard to economy, and of Mr. Sturrock, Inspector, as to what should be done with regard to teachers. I agree that there is nothing to be gained in the matter of economy by merging Marlborough into Nelson, or with regard to the teachers, because there is not a school in Nelson, excepting the College, of course, that has a roll number beyond what Marlborough has. The merging of Marlborough in Nelson would not assist the teachers at all. I fully agree-with what Mr. Sturrock said, that the whole of the teachers of the Dominion should be practically in the Civil Service, and be graded by the Government and paid, of course, according to their grades and merits. I know nearly every bit of Marlborough, and I do not see how in the matter of economy there would be any saving by merging it in any other district.