"Punctually at 8.45pm we left Euston ... Distance from London to Holyhead 270miles. Time 4hrs 50minutes. Stop at Crewe to change engines 10 minutes. Actual steaming time 4hours 40minutes. Average speed (approximate) 57.857miles per hour. Considering that we had several grades to negotiate, one may form an idea of the terrific speeds which we must develop in order to maintain our average."

The train from Sydney to Canberra currently takes 4hours 6minutes to cover 290kilometres (figures supplied by NSW Rail), i.e. an average speed of 43.95miles per hour (approximate).

Incidentally, my Uncle Warwick left his one-teacher school at Macksville on the NSW north coast at the end of year six. The teacher's name was Mr Paddy Quilkie. God bless him.

James Gralton, Garran

Not since 1957 when the Benjamin Round House by architect Alex Jelinek won House of the Year has a Canberra house won a national design award. Jorian Gardner's claim that "Canberrans are, in fact, among the most stylish award-winning home builders in the country" ("Destroying Canberra's built beauty", September18, page15) relies far too heavily on the word "among". It is a pity Gardner's article did not cite examples. In fact, Canberra has a culture of discouraging good residential design. Why, for example, does Canberra have only one house designed by the renowned Australian architect Glenn Murcutt? Because Murcutt confronted bureaucratic planning processes he considered disproportionate for a small house. He never built here again.

That type of story is not alone. Nevertheless, Gardner's cry for better housing design in Canberra deserves attention.

Governments cannot or will not legislate good design – that demand must come from the consumer. But the home buyer is now being offered the equivalent of an "all you can eat" smorgasbord of home designs and they are loading up. It is a first-world problem and no one has the answer, except perhaps Jesus: "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."

Penleigh Boyd,Reid

Surprise, surprise! "Foreshore building heights rise" (September18, page16). Get used to it, folks. Our town council is going to sell off all of the foreshores of all of our lakes and allow height developments above the load bearing capacity of the honeycombed limestone plateau on which Canberra sits.

After all, it's a great saving on rates. It's also a saving on Commonwealth funds. It meshes well with the plan to sell Anzac Park East and West. There is no need for the pretentious concept of the parliamentary triangle or the team of sinecures called the NCA, far less the ACT itself.

Gary J.Wilson, Macgregor

So Tony Abbott thinks climate change is "a third-order issue". Really? Large parts of Australia have just experienced their warmest and/or driest winter on record, and the bushfire season is well and truly upon us. Other parts of the world have experienced hugely damaging extreme weather events, and all this is before climate change has really got going.

Perhaps Mr Abbott might like to cast his mind forward 50 to 80 years to the problems his daughters and his grandchildren will be grappling with. The extinction of many species up and down the food chain; the disappearance of much of Australia's food bowl; too much water in some areas and not enough in others; more severe cyclones and, need I mention, bushfires. Oh, and lots of climate refugees.

Australia may only be a small player internationally, but with our own emissions and our coal exports we are responsible for around 5per cent of the world's emissions – punching above our weight, Mr Abbott might say! And if we, as a wealthy country, can't play our part in addressing this wicked problem, how can we expect the emerging economies such as India and China to take the problem seriously?

Catherine Rossiter, Royalla

Many people are currently calling for "equality", so I thought I'd add my voice to this call. But not in regard to same-sex marriage. I'm calling for equality for animals.

By equality, I mean equal basic rights. The right to breathe fresh air. The right to exercise and behave in a natural manner. Theright to freedom and, most importantly, the right to live.

Despite the fact that we are all animals, we currently treat billions of our fellow animals as though they are our slaves, experimental tools and playthings.

Isn't it time we acknowledged the fact that, even though we differ from them in many ways, they are equally deserving of life and happiness?

Jenny Moxham, Monbulk, Vic

Cory Bernardi at the recent launch of the same-sex marriage "no" campaign spoke of "how free speech [has been] threatened and eroded" in the course of recent weeks. Meaning the free speech of the "no" campaigners, of course.

Yet The Canberra Times on Friday, September 15, had a news item headed "Church cancels wedding after bride's same-sex marriage post" (page4). What is this other than a threat to free speech when a committed church-goer, apparently a member of the church congregation for 10 years, is not free to express openly her support for same-sex marriage?

Peter Dark, Karabar, NSW

US President Trump has told the UN that he is willing to murder millions of people to bring North Korea to heel.

But it won't just be North Koreans he kills. Worse, our own PM Malcolm Turnbull endorses his language, saying North Korea "will be wiped out", "many thousands will die" and Australia stands ready to help in the killing. (At the same time, our country continues to vote in favour of nuclear weapons in the UN resolution to ban them.)

Yes, these might be intended as threats to get Kim to pay attention. But they also have the potential to misfire on a colossal scale, resulting not only in outright war in North Korea but spillover impacts (especially if nuclear weapons are deployed) on South Korea, China, Japan, Australia itself and world civilisation (via a nuclear winter destroying the food supply). Thus, the whole of humanity could be among the victims of Trump and Turnbull's escalating aggression. And who can be certain China or Russia won't then become embroiled? They might decide to solve Trump the way he intends to solve Kim.

An earlier US president, Theodore Roosevelt, advocated his country "speak softly and carry a big stick." Trump, no student of history, doesn't even begin to get it. Worse, Australia is now being directed towards war by an unelected, unrepresentative cabal known as The Executive who, under section 61 and 68 of the constitution, have total power over all our fates. And there is not a damn thing you, I or any of us can do about it.

Australia, it is time to end the madness. Remove the war powers from the executive and give them to the Parliament.

Julian Cribb, Franklin

Nicholas Stuart's article "Navy sinks chance to build a top industry" (September 20, page 19) is a piece of mischievous nonsense.

If the current government had pursued a Fast Frigate procurement strategy on the same principles as the successful Anzac Ship Project in the 1990s, it would first have chosen suitable Australian shipbuilders and then invited them to bid on the most suitable overseas ship designs which met the navy's requirements all within, at contract award, the allocated budget (where the costs of construction in Australia were within 10per cent of the cost overseas).

No doubt there are improvements to that strategy which could have been incorporated in the current project. But the current government for its own reasons pursued its own strategy and must live with its natural consequences. It has to use an overseas design in current production to have a hope of starting construction at ASC in South Australia by 2020 and the main ship systems in that design must have natural outlets in Australia to have a hope of bringing the ships in on time and providing thorough life support in the country.

There isn't in Australia the prospect of an indigenous naval design capability other than to sustain the existing fleet which is far from an insignificant task. Neither the existing program for submarines and frigates nor the prospects for export sales will justify establishing such an extensive and significant capability to design our own complex warships, the closest the navy has ever come to this was when it owned its naval dockyards and employed most of the naval architects in the country but even then it was tied to the Admiralty.

Although I hold no brief for Mr Pyne, as the Defence Industry Minister, he has inherited the problem and if his calendar and notebook can produce the frigates and submarines on time, then more power to his elbow, after all he owns ASC.

B.L. West, Deakin

The imagining of ACT politicians, starkers and publicly shamed "Game of Thrones style" was quite evocative, but I thought the "familiar Canberra red brick" lobbed by Mr Jorian Gardner a misnomer (Allen key architecture, CT, 18/9).

Commonwealth Brickworks' last brick was produced when Chief Minister Barr was a babe in arms, Minister Berry in kindergarten, and Minister Gentleman a fresh-faced car enthusiast rallying in what is now Tuggeranong suburbs. The Greens' Le Couteur was barely out of Telopea Park Junior Debating; fellow Telopeans (and Liberals) the Jansen boys were helping Dirk snr pump amosite asbestos into Canberra's roof cavities.

My point is, Canberra today is a very different place to red brick Canberra and today's politicians seem to have pressing priorities, other than architectural standards and heritage. The irony is, the Brickworks site is soon to be redeveloped into unaffordable high-end units (a close putt to Royal Canberra) and Stuart Flats, where at least one humble brick worker once rested his head, about to be demolished and gentrified.

Canberra reds – haven't seen one for years.

Karl Smith, Fisher

Just who will bear the costs of Mr Rattenbury's latest market intervention: bulk-buy power, for "embedded networks" ('Bulk-buy power plan, September 19, page 1)? There are always costs of such deals: organising the group, collecting payments, bad debt when a member defaults. At the retailer level the discount for bulk buying groups is a cost spread over all retail customers.

If competition policy, which applies as law to government and government authorities is followed, the cost of such subsidies is brought to the budget, so that ACT ratepayers suffer the cost, rather than retail customers. This is why ratepayers are meeting the cost of subsidising rooftop power generation. The single most inefficient method of power generation needed subsidy to attract take-up to implement the fashionable idea, so the subsidy is paid by government out of taxpayer funds. Taxpayers are subsiding the power costs of some taxpayers; in some cases paying for their rooftop systems.

If government can now abandon competition policy we should restore ACT electricity to its previous status as the cheapest supplier in Australia. Push the other electric suppliers out of the ACT. If buying groups were worth operating they would already exist by force of human nature and or commerce. Mr Rattenbury should get out of the marketplace and market manipulations.

Warwick Davis, Isaacs

UN'S FAILED MISSION

The UN has many excellent and effective agencies, but has failed in its prime goal of preventing wars. And why should the US fund 22per cent of the UN budget?

Rod Matthews, Fairfield,Vic

CBS INFLUENCE

I have seen virtually no discussion of Channel 10 being sold to giant American media company CBS. Why is this being allowed? We are talking about banning foreign donations – a media outlet would have equal if not more influence in an election period.

Kathryn Kelly, Chifley

FEARS FOR CURRICULUM

Like others, I fear what could happen to the school curriculum as a result of the silly survey on marriage. In the event of a "no" vote, might an empowered religious right push for equal or even primary place for creation theory alongside or over evolutionary and evidence-based science?

Keith Hill, Kaleen

NO TIME TO GO SOFT

Minister Hunt has a clear choice between "increasing the family grocery bill" or funding unremittingly exponential health expenditure ("Demand for 20pc tax on soft drinks", September19, page2). Soft drink lobby groups "partnering" with public health groups is equivocation for infiltrating to torpedo any possibility of healthy outcomes.

Albert M.White, Queanbeyan

ELECTRICITY PRICES

Rod Sims' comments at the National Press Club on September20 regarding the need for cheap commercial power, without which we could lose more of our industries, raised the spectre of electricity prices and thus industry being subsidised by the populace.

Gary J.Wilson, Macgregor

ROHINGYA STANCE

I am staggered at the ignorance and insensitivity of Peter Dutton on hearing that the "non-refugee" Rohingya men on Manus have been offered money to return to Myanmar, from which more than 400,000 of their fellows have fled to Bangladesh as their homes burn and their friends and relatives die. This beats all.

Margaret Lee, Hawker

LAUGHING STOCK

What is the obstacle? This is 2017. AmI missing something? I care for the environment. However, I want affordable, reliable power for all. Weare a laughing stock, trying to preserve a clapped-out machine like Liddell that supplies 13per cent of needs is laughable. A national bipartisan approach wouldn't go astray.

Linus Cole, Palmerston

SPREADING WINGS

From the compost of sexism, a beautiful butterfly will emerge.

Matt Ford, Crookwell, NSW

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

Keep your letter to 250 words or less. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).