Fair go for all species
HOW CONTRASTING, the two photographs in Saturday's The Canberra Times (''Tourists told to 'stay away' as cull starts'', July 4, p1).
The first, on page 2, shows a female eastern grey kangaroo and joey in an area of box woodland in a local nature reserve with precious little, if any, grass cover, almost certainly eaten out by the kangaroos.
The second, on the front page of Panorama magazine featuring Judith Wright and ''Nugget'' Coombs, in what is presumably the protected area owned by the late Ms Wright. Look at the amount of native grass in this photo.
The latter, while maybe not the exact same composition of plant species, is what Canberra nature parks should look like if they had not been overgrazed by an expanding population of kangaroos.
For those people who deny culling the kangaroos is having a beneficial effect on grassland and wooded grassland dependant species, I suggest they look at the former Defence Department site at Lawson. It has gone from a billiard table-like surface to one where, after the cull, the grass has grown sufficiently to help protect other more-endangered species, and there are still kangaroos present.
This is what these culls are about giving all species a chance to survive. It's high time people from the so-called Wildlife Preservation Society and animal liberation groups realised there is more to Australian wildlife than kangaroos and koalas, and that all native species of plants, birds and animals deserve a fair go.
If they can show me evidence that other species are not being affected by local kangaroo overgrazing, I'm prepared to listen. I'll bet they can't!
M. Clayton, Kaleen
Where to now?
SO THE animal libbers are going to boycott Canberra because of the kangaroo cull (''Tourism boycott bid over roo cull'', July 3, p1). But where will the poor, sensitive little darlings go now for their holidays? NSW is obviously out; they cull roos there too. Same with pretty much anywhere else in Australia.
New Zealand? Nope, they shoot just about anything over there. The USA? Deer and moose. Canada? Seals, caribou. Britain? Foxes. Europe? Chamois, wild boar. Asia or Africa? You name it. Antarctica? Claimed by most of the above.
Happy hunting (so to speak)!
Ian Paterson, Hawker
ACT's pricey petrol
IT'S INTERESTING that petrol was $122.9 discounted at Merimbula, $126.9 discounted at Cooma and $131.9 discounted in Canberra on Friday, July 3.
I do not see that freight costs could account for the difference in price.
But it is nice to see the shoe on the other foot coastal drivers have been paying a premium for petrol for years.
Patrick Hazell, Kaleen
More passport pain
YOU ARE not alone!
After reading the story on passports in The Sunday Canberra Times, I thought, '''Go girl!'' (''Need a passport? Take your tent'', June28, p25) It's about time someone shared their passport pain with us all. I tried to renew my daughter's and my own passport in a hurry. Getting time from work to run around and get documents witnessed, have interviews and have more than one photo taken proved to be more stressful than I ever imagined.
The post office staff treated me like I had ''two heads'': ''Too much white around your head'' new photo; ''I can see your teeth'' was a speck on the camera lens new photo; ''Black pen not the same as the one that signed the form'' new photo and new form.
I ended up looking like Morticia Adams because I didn't have the energy to go through the process one more time. (I was the laughing stock at Italian Immigration).
I decided to move to another post office. The attitude of staff there was not that different.
The year my daughter was born a commemorative birth certificate with native flora and fauna printed on the edges was issued. I used this to obtain her original passport with no problems. This time it was a huge issue. My partner had to get a ''plain'' birth certificate in a hurry as we were going overseas in seven days. The cost of the birth certificate in a hurry and then the passport in a hurry just added to the tears and stress.
J. Bennett, Ainslie
Fees an ode to joy
THE GREED factor in the proposed music fee increase of a thousand per cent for restaurants and gyms is opportunistic and to be deplored (Editorial, June 28, p18). The increase is a disincentive which could lead to silence in some venues and a restriction in others on the range of music patrons are subjected to.
However, as with most dark clouds, it could also bring a silver lining. Silence in our ghetto-blasted modern-day world is a rare oasis that allows shattered nerves and abused sensory receptors to recover.
Instead of the mind-numbing rapper's rant at a 6am gym session, perhaps we can now look forward to a stirring rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus by the King's Choir.
At a restaurant, instead of the shrill inanity of hip hop we may be greeted by the gentle rock of Elvis's Wooden Heart.
Suddenly, the skies brighten and the prospect of a fee increase is an Ode to Joy that makes a jaded baby-boomer heart sing. When is this fee increase due exactly? I must put a ring around the date in my diary.
John Bell, Lyneham
A death to restaurants
DAVID Curry's article ''Plan to ramp up music fees'' (June 28, p7) correctly points out the hospitality industry's concerns over the increase in music licensing fees for cafes and restaurants proposed by the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia.
But the real story is buried in the eighth paragraph, which points out that a licensed 120-seat restaurant selling meals for between $15 and $25 (which is most restaurants in the ACT) could be paying nearly $10,000 a year just to play background music. Many restaurants are small owner-operated businesses and music is played in the background for ambience, not as a primary source of entertainment.
If the Phonographic Performance Company has its way we might all have to get used to eating in silence or paying $8 for a cappuccino. There should also be some serious questions asked about where that money goes and how much ends up in the pockets of musicians.
It is the staggering quantum of the increase that has the Australian Hotels Association taking action on behalf of the industry.
Steven Fanner, Australian Hotels Association, ACT branch general manager
Buried in a burka
A BROW wrinkled with worry or concern, a twinkle of amusement in the eyes, a smile, an eyebrow raised in doubt the face with its range of expressions is essential to interpersonal relations. Cover up your face if you must, but you have closed yourself off from the rest of the world.
Barrie Smillie, Duffy
A new museum?
IF THE National Museum does ''plan to think big'' by moving administration and Mitchell storage and building an extension, maybe Yarramundi Reach would be extensive enough to cater for all exhibits and administration in a new museum there (''Museum plans to think big'', June 28, p3). An excellent architectural masterpiece could be achieved by an international design competition. Such a museum would not be out of reach of tourists and local Canberrans.
Caroline Creagh Scullin, Scullin