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more than sufficient for securing the services of competent masters. On that understanding I approve of these increases. The salaries affected will of course be removed from the operation of any general scheme of increase which may be adopted on account of a rise in the cost of living in the Colony.
3. We humbly beg to submit that in the scheme proposed by Mr. Wright (G.S. 13274, Jan. 87) the increase of salaries was agreed to by a commission consisting of the late Dr. Stewart, then Acting Inspector of Colonial Secondary Schools; Dr. Eitel, Inspector of Schools; and Mr. Wright, our Head Master. The reasons for the small increases proposed were:
(a) A higher and more comprehensive syllabus of work in the Victoria College;
(b) to obtain and retain competent masters.
4. In connection with this latter statement, we beg to point out that one of the most recently arrived masters, Mr. Hazelden, a graduate in arts, London, left the Service before being confirmed, his reasons for doing so being:
(a) an insufficient salary;
(b) a want of future prospects.
5. Mr. Wright says, para. 13:- "The question of salaries both for European Masters and Chinese Assistants is one that deserves serious attention. The high class special education which the former have received, and the fact that promotions from this to other branches of the Service are rarely made, both require that the servants of the Government in the Educational Department should be adequately paid: otherwise their interest in the