In connection with Frank Boddy's letter (May 27) scorning removal of some of Canberra's street trees in the urban forestry program, he quotes two foreign examples where he is sure this would never happen.
It is helpful to research thoroughly one's quoted examples to ensure the comparison drawn has credibility.
In the case of the Champs-Elysees, the magnificent plane trees to which Boddy refers are chestnuts at the Arc de Triomphe end. I was there four weeks ago and it's noticeable that some of these venerable trees, so symbolic of Paris, are showing signs of ageing. Paris will eventually be faced with the same dilemma as Canberra and other cities.
The plane trees which Boddy uses as an example of the unthinkable happening, that is replacement, are in a lower section of the avenue. They are about 15 years old, so are hardly in line for renewal at this stage.
By Pall Mall, Boddy presumably means The Mall. The former is devoid of trees. Certainly The Mall is lined with plane trees and my understanding is that these are about 100 years old. They are approaching an age, like Canberra's trees, where decline may take place.
I know from colleagues in Britain that the policy on replacement of aged or declining trees in London streets and parks has been discussed for some time.
An inescapable fact is that trees when planted in artificial conditions such as streets often behave differently than in their normal habitat. All too frequently the result is shorter life-spans, sometimes drastically so, and replanting has to take place, painful as this is. Climatic factors in Canberra exacerbate this.
But, taking one of Boddy's points, with a university background and as a member of the reference panel appointed by the ACT Government, what would I know about it?
Incidentally, the name of the acting executive director, Environment and Recreation, is Russell Watkinson, not Wilkinson.
Professor Ken Taylor
Urban Forest Renewal Program Reference Group member
SUBURBAN REMEDIES
It's lovely to see photos of autumn colour in The Canberra Times. Notice all the photos are in the older, more desirable and expensive suburbs.
Why isn't the ACT Government making the new suburbs desirable as well? It wouldn't take much effort to take the desirable parts of an existing suburb into a new suburb.
How does this sound? Wide streets with wide verges, minimum 900sqm blocks of land, parks where a ball can be kicked around and lovely autumn trees. The current new suburbs with 400sqm blocks, narrow roads and native trees will only be desirable to a small percentage.
A full cost-benefit analysis will show that these desirable suburbs end up with a smaller total life environmental footprint than the current jammed in suburbs. The crime rate will be lower, the social pride will be higher, families will buy and stay rather than move on. Even petrol consumption will be less as families will be able to play at home or in the local park.
I thought we lived in a democracy where the government's job was to provide what the people want. What has happened?
John Skurr
Deakin
SWINE FLU STRETCH
Are we overreacting to this swine flu? There have been relatively few cases, and all seem to have been quite mild; no one seems to be getting seriously ill. The symptoms appear indistinguishable from ''ordinary'' flu which is prevalent this time of year.
What is it about swine flu that seems to have provoked a media frenzy and a response from governments that is totally out of proportion to the apparent threat? Is this swine flu virus worse than the ordinary flu virus? And if so, how?
To be alert but not alarmed seems to be the appropriate response.
Anything else seems over the top.
Don Sephton
Greenway
PHARMACEU TICAL BENEFITS
I don't know how this business with the new H1N1 virus will develop I hope it goes the way of avian flu.
But it's clear to me that fear is a big industry an industry that manufactures power for governments and their institutions, and profits for commercial companies.
It is well known that when people are scared, they are easier to control and will readily give up many of their democratic rights and freedoms in order to be ''saved'' from some impending disaster.
Commercial companies manufacture a wide range of products such as medication to reassure us when we are scared. I wonder how much Tamiflu has been sitting in warehouses nearing its expiry date.
And the media, as always, colludes uncritically.
Take for example The Canberra Times's headline ''Warning on swine flu deaths'' (May 28, p1). Not ''Warning on possible swine flu deaths''.
You must read the story, the small print, to realise that deaths have not yet occurred in Australia.
But the headline had already done its job, manufacturing yet more unnecessary public fear. I suppose spreading fear is another strategy to combat an ailing global economy.
At least the pharmaceutical giants are laughing all the way to the bank.
Avigail Ababranel
Lyneham
MOVES AT MANUKA OVAL
There must have been a reason for the development and expansion of Manuka Oval but certainly nothing logical.
Why was Manuka Oval (hemmed in by roads and buildings and having almost no parking space) expanded while Phillip Oval (surrounded by car parks, a major shopping centre, licensed clubs and open space) was allowed to fall into disuse and decay?
And now the arts centre nearby Manuka Oval will be affected by future ''development''.
How long until Manuka Pool is affected as well? And then Telopea Park?
Should we just ''get used to it'', Chief Minister?
Mike Phoenix
Greenway
ARCHITECTURAL TINT?
I wonder if Penleigh Boyd (Letters, May 28), in claiming to set right one of the myths of the Opera House, has helped, or just added by viewing the facts through glasses with an architectural tint.
The facts seem to be that Joern Utzon's initial concept was unbuildable not a first for an architect as many an engineer could testify.
Utzon did move from a free-form to spherical design so that his concept could be built it still involved leading-edge technology to complete. At the elemental level these two concepts are identical. However, at the macro level there are the two major consequences of such a shift these would be obvious to any competent engineer or mathematician and they are that a spherical geometry is easier to analyse and cheaper to build than a free-form one.
Given that Utzon started with the impossible and presumably that it was the engineers who told him this was so, it was Utzon's task, and not the engineers, to adjust the concept to make it workable.
I'd be quite surprised if Utzon's decision to go spherical was not ''guided'' by technical input from the engineers involved and who would otherwise be trying to meet the architects specification.
Boyd's claim needs a credible referee if it is to be accepted as fact.
Trevor McPherson
Aranda
FITTING QANTAS SEATS
There's a possibility that Qantas will charge more for exit-row seats.
I don't mind the idea at all if Qantas will reduce the cost of non-aisle seats which make exiting to the aisle as a prelude to reaching the nearest vacant toilet an activity that demands peak physical condition, plus model-type thighs, tummies and buttocks.
Fatties who manage to extricate themselves from non-aisle seats with their blood pressure still at safe levels are probably rare.
Perhaps all exit row seats should be reserved for overweight passengers.
But since obesity generally depends on the people themselves, they should not object if they are told to cough up an extra amount which could become known as GT, Girth Tax.
Henk Verhoeven
Beacon Hill, NSW
CHINA WATCHERS
Jack Waterford's article ''Risky path on N Korea (May 27, p17), mentions China watchers.
He writes, ''Trying to find out what was really going on, as with China-watching in the 1960s, became a brand of theology dependent on interpreting slight changes of emphasis in poetry.''
Why so coy, Jack?
I am sure you recall the Reader's Digest article of that period, ''The China Watchers''.
It identified the provider of CIA's open source intelligence as a group of scholars of the Society of Jesus.
They were based in Hong Kong and monitored mainland radio transmissions.
The Jesuits have been orientalists for centuries following Saint Francis Xavier's trips to Canton and Japan in 1549-50.
More recently, reported trips by the CIA director to the Vatican would indicate that the Roman influence on America's policy has not abated.
Gary J. Wilson
Hackett
ILL-PLACED HUG
A Supreme Court judge would like to give a convicted carjacker a hug (''Carjacker in line for well-deserved hug'', May 28, p3).
Although I believe we should all encourage and applaud people's attempts to turn their lives around after making bad choices, I would like to give the victim a hug presumably, she experienced unimaginable terror at the time, and may well live with the effects of the attack for the rest of her life.
Gordon Fyfe
Kambah
CONTRAST ON CATS
The heroic rescue of Pamela Holmes's cat (Letters, May 29) was a stark contrast to my mother's experience. Her call for help to the local fire station was flatly refused with the gruff response, ''Have you ever seen a dead cat up a tree?''
Hamish Podger
Macquarie
ATTACKS ON INDIANS
I write in support of the Indian Government's protests regarding the brutal attacks that have hospitalised Indian students in Melbourne.
That the Indian Government should feel obliged to order its high commissioner in Canberra to personally investigate the issue amid suggestions that Australia could be declared an unsafe destination for Indians should be a wake-up call for all Australians.
The tidal surge in violence and killings on our streets that are not being met by any appreciable and visible police presence have already shredded any notion that Victoria's ''the place to be''.
Many Australians are still smarting at the racist tag that the former Telstra boss has hurled at us. Like it or not, he's not far off the money, but it shouldn't be the prospect of losing a multi-billion-dollar education industry that should fire-up any meaningful response to put a stop to these outrages.
Brian Haill
Frankston, Vic
Email a friend