A message to the person who `placed' a bag of trash on the South Shore Road -- in front of what used to be Mermaid Beach -- on Sunday, May 7 between 11.30 and 12.30 p.m.

Shame, shame, shame on you! Please don't let your garbage stray -- keep it at home.

WARWICK WALKER Walk a litter-al mess May 09, 2000 Dear Sir, I was pleased to read in Monday's paper (May 8, Page 5) what a success this year's End to End walk was.

As one of the walkers who did the St. George's to Dockyard walk however, I was dismayed at the amount of trash that I saw discarded by the side of the road and paths, sometimes within inches of a garbage bin.

The End to End organisation had trash bins set-up at each stop and along the route. There simply was no excuse for throwing bottles and wrappers by the side of the road and along the railway paths.

What I saw on Saturday was senseless disregard for our beautiful Island.

I was glad to read that the End to End organisers did hire someone to do a trash pick-up behind the walkers, but why was it so heavily littered in the first place? Do we care so little about preserving Bermuda's natural beauty? A big hand however to the End to End committee for a walk that thought of every need including supplying water at every stop, oranges, granola bars, sunblock... very well organised and well done! L ZUILL Sandys Parish Justice is a joke May 10, 2000 Dear Sir, I am a Bermudian and just want to express my total shock at the lack of appropriate punishment dealt out by Bermuda's legal system.

Last night, while listening to the evening news, I was floored by the report on the outcome of the case involving a man being beaten outside the Bank of Bermuda.

"He was beaten about the head and body resulting in a concussion, fractured jaw and damage to his kidneys and liver,'' read the Royal Gazette article.

If I am correct, they intended to put a pretty bad hurt on this man. Yet our Ms Justice Simmons gave him six months! Is she joking? I first thought maybe I had misheard the sentence or that the reporter had made a mistake, but this morning when I read the paper I knew that I was living in a crazy country.

I was further upset by the reason the judge cited for not handing out the maximum sentence of two years (big deal). "I take in to account your earlier admission to the assault, the uninvited provocation by the victim, the injury you received as a result and your guilty plea.'' Well my hat is off to that upstanding individual -- should we not let him go scot-free -- or have we? I see that as long as someone upsets me without invitation that I may beat them into a coma with little fear of punishment.

JONATHAN ALEXANDER City of Hamilton Cabbies do their part May 2, 2000 Dear Sir, I felt compelled to write this letter to answer taxi critics and those who are using taxis and taxi drivers to score political points.

I refer to the front page of The Royal Gazette (Thursday April 20) where it was stated by a hotelier that the taxi fare from Paget to Hamilton round-trip was $30.00.

This is a blatant lie, the only way a fare would be $15.00 one-way is if the passenger wished to stop along the way or perhaps there was an accident and the traffic was held up. Is this type of false information given to our guest? Sir, I took two passengers from Hamilton to Camp Hill, Southampton, dropped off one passenger at Spice Hill and the other at Fork Lane, Camp Hill, which was the final stop.

The fare came to $14.70 and this was at 1.45 (a.m.), which after midnight there is a 24 percent surcharge, so I just do not see how the fare from Hamilton to Paget or vice versa could be $30.00 round-trip.

If this hotelier has a gripe with the Transportation Minister due to the cut in ferry service, then they should contact the minister or the Department of Tourism and state their case and not single out the taxi service with nflated figures.

Those people, who criticise, degrade and treat taxi drivers as third-class citizens should be reminded that we provide a much-needed service to this community. They should also be reminded that the guest spends most of the time with us.

Taxi drivers are the ones the guests ask about the restaurants and where the can get local food. Some often say, "Driver, the people we met were so nice to us. We will like to come back next year. Where do you recommend we stay?'' Should I recommend these places in Paget? I do not think so.

Sir, there are two establishments on the South Shore, one in Paget and the other in Southampton. They might be called small hotels or cottage colonies.

These two establishments do not allow taxis to pick up their guest at the airport or take them to the airport. They know who they are.

Speaking of the Airport, so much for the first-come-first-serve system. I thought tourism was about all of us -- or is it about just some of us? I would like to let the public know about the extra services the taxi drivers provide to the community in the early hours of the morning.

When young people lay bleeding in the road after hitting a telephone pole or moving wall, we are the first ones on the scene. We are the ones that call the ambulance. I say moving walls because strange things happen in the early hours of the morning.

We bring your sons and daughters home, at 3 a.m., unable to stand on their own. Most times we have to help the males up the steps and the females we make sure they are safe and inside the house before driving off. We don't have to do this, but we do.

We save the females from being beaten up by their boyfriends and sometimes we do not charge them the fare because they are very confused and have no cash.

On Sunday morning, April 23, at approximately 3.15 a.m. when about 150 youth started fighting and beating on each other and Police cars with their sirens blaring and lights flashing, tourists were running cover. It is the taxi drivers that come to their rescue.

In closing, I would like to remind the hoteliers, restaurants, bars and nightclubs that we recommend to the tourists where they should go.

To the rookie Police officers who harass us at night, we are working to make your job easier by taking the people who had a little too much to drink off the street so they do not get beaten up and possibly robbed.

To the taxi critics, while you are sleeping we are working to take care of our guests.

TAXI DRIVER Devonshire P.s. To my fellow drivers who have a vested interest in this business, take time out to sell your country and your business. No one knows your country better than you. This can be done while on vacation or on the internet. Try it, it really works.

Take a hard look May 4, 2000 Dear Sir, Please take a hard look at the smouldering problems in Bermuda today, most of which do not seem to be being addressed.

The middle-class voters who switched from the UBP and elected the PLP are dumbfounded by a lack of action because the PLP refuses to deal with the media. We are left with the impression that the Premier takes endless trips, drinks champagne and clutches at huge hats in Bermuda's balmy breezes.

Not much has been done about the sorry state of education in the primary schools except the East End mess which the Premier, the St. George's North MP, bungled badly.

The Transport Minister seems to be punishing UBP Paget by messing with the ferries at a time when ferry service should be increased to get cars off the crowded roads.

The functioning of the Police force is of grave concern. The Bermuda College, once a model of how well Bermuda could do things, is a messy embarrassment.

Where are the promised low-income houses? St. David's, which threw out the UBP and elected Arthur Pitcher, is alarmed because of houses to be built by -- guess who -- Arthur Pitcher.

The art world is alarmed by very silly draft legislation designed to ruin freedom of expression. Tourism continues to decline despite the fact that all and sundry abroad to "jump up'' in the name of promotion.

The Finance Minister's failure to give the strangled retail sector the breaks which might -- just might -- have meant survival.

Government is trying to see just how far it can go before it pushes international companies to seek friendlier -- and less expensive -- locations.

Amidst all this the BIU decides to fly in the face of an already weak court system which is suffering from a lack of talented people.

Those who choose to remain quiet and appease the PLP will live to regret their silences.

WATCHING Paget Island would lose Dear Sir, I think it is terrible what is happening to the exempt companies in Bermuda.

There are so many rules placed on them by the Bermudian government that I think they might just leave the Island.

And if they leave, Bermuda and Bermudians will be making a big mistake. What I feel will happen is that the companies will leave if all these restrictions are put on them.

Right now, Bermuda is blooming with international business, but if they left, Bermuda will lose millions of dollars.

I don't believe for one minute that tourism could sustain the standard of living the people of Bermuda have. We would lose so much money and the Island would fall into a depressed state, and I fear that we would never recover from it.

It has taken many years for Bermuda to build up with financial industry and because of that, the price of real estate has risen so much.

If the Island were to lose much of its revenue now, the price of real estate would drop and many people would lose their homes. This is just one example of what I believe would happen.

A lot of Bermudian people depend on the exempt companies for their jobs and if those companies leave, they will be unemployed or working a job that could never pay as much.

Other countries all over the world have accepted that they need exempt companies in their country to provide jobs and revenue; Bermuda must do the same if it is to keep the reputation that it has fought so hard for.

Government must realise that if the exempt companies leave, the rest of the world are watching and also, the rich people who have their money here.

Can we really afford to lose the exempt companies and the rich clients who have their money in the local banks? ROBERT NELSON