Money
pp. 89-91 · Read in the full issue
They Want More Money to Stay in Fiji Reports of Public Servants', Teachers' Salaries
rE Fiji Government has accepted ‘‘without comment” the report of the Salaries Commissioner 'Mr. Justice Carew) on the salaries of the Colony’s public servants.
It is believed that substantial rises in PS salaries reprospective to January 1, 1954, will result.
According to the report, the only alternative to raising these salaries is to lose some of the most promis ing officers, particularly technical officers. The cost of living in Fiji in 1954 is calculated to be times more than in 1939; and between 1950 and 1954 the cost rose bv about 25 per cent.
Cost of living in Fiji is believed to be higher than in most other British colonies and. at the same time, salaries and allowances are much lower. As a consequence, the Fiji Government is finding it dif ficult to fill senior posts as they become vacant through retirements or transfer of officers to more lucrative posts elsewhere.
Teachers’ Salaries, Too
Meanwhile a local committee set UP to inquire into the state of school-teachers’ finance has re commended that their salaries should rise substantially «it is estimated that it would cost the Colony £53,000 in the first year) It is the opinion of the Committee tnat the scheme under which New Zealand teachers serve in the Colony for a short period is not altogether to the benefit of Fiji education. Most of the teachers serve only two years—and that,
through no sense of vocation but mostly because Fiji service counts as ‘country service”—of which the NZ teacher has to put in ‘nree years.
Commented the committtee: It is probably this rule that has en sured a supply of teachers to the Colony . . . but a satisfactory’ edu cation service with continuity an not be obtained in this way.”'
How It Is Managed In The
South-West
Fiji may be interested in the
teacher-training scheme now opera ted by the Administration of Papua- New Guinea. Up to 10 students of matriculation or similar qualifi cation will be chosen each year and trained at the Teachers’ Training College in Sydney. While at the College, they are paid a salary ac cording to their age—between £450 and £l,OOO per annum. On gradua tion they are posted to the Territory as members of the Territory’s Education Department, and must guarantee, under bond, to work for a specified number of years.
These teachers are tied in no way at all to the NSW education system and it is hoped in this way to provide a solid core of European teachers whose allegiance is solely to the Territory.
The only alternative to this is to try to recruit qualified teachers from Australia or New Zealand— with all the difficulties encountered by Fiji with its system of short term secondment from New Zealand service.
A promise that he would see a rare duck took Sir Edward Hallstrom on a visit to the New Guinea High lands mid-June. The duck, a Salvadoris, is believed to be the only one reared in captivity. It was to be brought, for Sir Edward’s in spection, to the Nondugl Experi mental Farm.
fl The Rev. James Aingimea, first missionary from the 1,500 natives of Nauru, passed through Brisbane last month to take up his first appointment at Daru in Western Papua. He was accompanied by his wife and four children. He de cided to become a missionary when he was subjected to Japanese cruelty on Truk during the war. After liberation, he applied to the Con gregational Church of Australia for training, and went to Cromwell College, Brisbane, in 1951.