The National Union of Teachers held their annual confer- ence
in Cardiff on March 30th, Mr. G-. Collins taking the President's chair. His address indicates that, in the general judgment, there should be a great increase in the number of teachers, which is declared to be lamentably insufficient ; that the average salary of certificated masters, which is now 2119 12s, a year, should be increased till it compares with that of third-class clerks in the Education Department, who begin on 2100 a year, and rise to £300; and that rules should be adopted giving to teachers greater security of tenure. The teachers, in fact, desire to be made a subordinate Civil Service, a demand in which they may probably succeed. Mr. Collins himself allows, however, that the Managers are exceedingly lenient, keeping on teachers long after they have ceased to be efficient; and the whole body must be careful lest by excessively increasing cost they produce a popular reaction against education. The salaries of teachers under the London School Board are already the objects of bitter criticism, and it should not be forgotten that much of the work could be transferred to women, as it is in Massachusetts. More prizes should be the teachers' ideal, not a higher average.
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