734 PROCEEDIXGS OF SECTIOX J. 



position and popular estimate of the teacher shows slow i;pward 

 progress diu-ing the first decade after separation. When Queensland 

 had been ten years running as a separate State, it possessed a staff of 

 170 teachers and pupil-teachers in eighty-eight schools, who received 

 an average salary of £67 per year. But of these, eigiity-eight, or a 

 little over half , had school fees which averaged £17 additional, so that 

 the head teachers of those days had the princely average income of 

 £114 a year. Wait! I must not forget to add that, in order to 

 encourage the employment of the more reliable married teacher, the 

 board, wherever possible, provided a residence which it was stipulated 

 in the specifications " must contain at least two decent rooms and a 

 kit<5hen." 



At the time I speak of there were two classes of schools — vested 

 ■or board schools, and non-vested or denominational schools ; the figures 

 ■cover the whole of the State-paid salaries in both classes of schools. 

 When I state that the pay in the non-vested schools was usually much 

 lower than in the board's schools, one gets an idea of the slender 

 remuneration received by the teachers in the denominational schools. 

 Small wonder that very great difficulty was experienced in retaining the 

 services of the non-vested teachers. Those who amounted to anything 

 resigned and sought admission to the board's service. The result was, 

 in tlie denominational schools, a '' survival of the unfit " ; and quite 

 naturally the quality of what was called " the instruction" was of a 

 veiy inferior kind. Thoughtful citizens saw and deplored the two- 

 fold waste^ — the waste of money on inferior teaching, and the irrepar- 

 able waste of school years of a large section of the rising community. 

 Hence arose an agitation for the amendment of the Act, which in 

 1873-4 culminated in a Royal Connnission, and the introduction of the 

 Act under which we now work. Before leaving this pioneer stage and 

 its lessons, I have some other points to mention, and some conclusions 

 to draw. 



The average attendance was only a fraction over 50 per cent, of 

 the enrolment, a fact which speaks volumeis for the kind of " discipline" 

 that obtained in the schools. Indeed, it was nor, uncommon for a large 

 proportion of a school to go off on truanting expeditions of indefinite 

 duration (on the principle of the safety in numbers). When I add 

 that corporal punishment was exti-emely common, and severe to a 

 degree now happily unheard of, 1 have summed up in these two facts 

 the low ebb at which real teaching stood. Of all the cheap things a 

 nation can invest in cheap teaching is the worst bargain. An effort 

 had been made to " grow" a better supply by means of the pupil- 

 teacher system ; this was only partially successful for several reasons. 

 In the earlier sixties Brisbane had no grammar school, and parents of 

 the better class who desired an education, anything beyond the three 

 R's, found it a good plan to make pupil-teachers of their children. But 

 as these mostly resigned towards the end of their term of pupilage, no 

 great permanent improvement to the staff resulted. Moreover, the 

 then head of the only " model " or normal school was not a trained 

 teacher himself. 



Meanwhile population was flowing in, enrolment was increasing, 

 and among the new arrivals were some pioneer teachers, men who 

 were destined to leave the impress of their strong personality on our 



