Mr. Meldon once more drew attention yesterday week in the
House of Commons, to the extremely small pay of the Teachers of the Irish National Schools, and maintained that the Act of 1875 had been a failure. He asserted that the average salary of Irish Teachers of all classes was only £43 6s. 9d., against an average in England of £103 10s. 10d. for males, and £62 9s. ld. for females ; and in Scotland, of £110 5s. 10d. for males, and £58 14s. 4d. for females. He admitted, however, that in the " contributory Unions" which have taken advantage of the Act of last year, and which are seventy in number, and are rated at seven millions sterling, against ninety-three which have not come into the Act, and which are rated at only six millions sterling, the position of the teachers bad been improved. Indeed, Sir M. Hicks-Beach maintained that in these " contributory Unions," which contain almost all the large towns, the increase in the teachers' salaries amounts to £128,000 a year,—a very tangible improvement. Sir M. Hicks - Beach still felt some confidence that the Act of 1875 would do much more for the teachers than it does at present, though he admitted that was not enough, and that something must be done in the way of making the Central grant proportional to the amount of the local contribution, and also in the way of giving Govern-
went pensions for teachers who had already secured some Post- Office annuity for themselves. At present Ireland allows the Central grant to pay vastly the greatest proportion of the expense of education. In 1874, the local contributions amounted to only about £70,000, as compared with £448,000 contributed Joy the State.
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