instruction. He encouraged higher education by extending the scholarship system.
In 1905, twelve months before he died, he was able to give practical expression to his sympathy with the colony’s school teachers. In that year, when he was Minister for Education, he submitted to Parliament a teachers’ superannuation scheme, which is embodied in an Act of Parliament.[1] He looked upon school teachers as something more than Civil Servants, working day after day for a salary, and apart from his sympathetic efforts to improve the condition of a class of public servants, he felt that it was necessary in the interests of the colony to maintain a high standard amongst all teachers of the young.
“Those who have studied the position, and have gone into it,” he said, “will come to the conclusion that the children of a country will be to a great extent what the teachers are. If the teachers are of good moral character, with high ideals, and realise the great responsibility that is cast upon them, then in morals and in bearing you will almost see the reflection of that fact in the children, and, therefore, I say that we have devolving upon us the great responsibility of seeing that our teachers receive an adequate remuneration. They should not be kept at the miserable remuneration that they have received in years gone by; and, contrasting the altered conditions and the increased cost of living, although we have made, during late years, a large increase in teachers’ salaries, I do not hesitate to say that to-day the salaries of our teachers are not commensurate with their responsibilities, and are not enough to maintain them in that position which all well-wishers of our country would like to see them in.”
His sympathy always took a practical shape, and when he turned his attention to the Maoris, he took prompt steps to place them in better circumstances. In 1898 and 1899, he, with the Hon. J. Carroll, Native Minister, accompanied Lord Ranfurly, who was then Governor of New Zealand, to the King Country, where they met the chiefs and leading men of the tribes in that part of the colony. Large areas of native lands had been sold, and the Maori race was decreasing so rapidly that it seemed to be doomed. Mr. Seddon attended many gatherings of the Maoris, and at all of them he was heartily welcomed. At Waihi, Huntly, he met Mahuta, the Maori King, and other chiefs of the Waikato. The following speech by Rawhiti, an influential
- ↑ The Teachers’ Superannuation Act, 1905. Details of the measure are given in a speech delivered by Mr. Seddon in the House of Representatives on July 21st, 1905.
