Dear Sir, My wife and I have just returned from a first and very enjoyable visit to Bermuda. Our welcome everywhere was, like the weather, very warm. The Island is beautiful and its people charming. We hope to return.

Our experience as holidaymakers has been very different to that of our daughter, who arrived in September to work on the Island. She too came with high expectations, but hers have not been fulfilled. She is a nail technician, and was engaged by a premier beauty salon in Hamilton. She -- and I -- were assured that she would earn somewhere between $500 and $700 dollars a week which, given the cost of living in Bermuda, seemed fair. But on a basic wage of just over $140 per week, after deductions, and the rest on commission she has, despite her best efforts, never achieved anything like that, and has had to survive on an average take home pay of approximately $330.

Thus my daughter, and others like her, for she is not unique in this situation, found herself having spent her savings to get to Bermuda and establish herself, earning little more than half of what she was led to expect, losing money every week, and unable for work permit reasons to consider changing jobs or taking a second one. Her only option has been to cut her losses and come home.

I recognise the incentive that earnings from commission provides, but I am concerned about a system which allows employers to induce young girls to come to Bermuda and then not pay them a living wage when they get there. They are trapped and vulnerable. Is there no protection for them? GROUP CAPTAIN M.G. PEAKER Middlesex, England Dr. Hodgson mistreated January 29, 1999 Dear Sir, I read with great interest the letter written by Dr. Muriel Wade Smith (January 13, 1999) regarding Dr. Eva Hodgson. I felt compelled to write this letter because I concur 100 percent with Dr. Smith.

My first contact with Dr. Hodgson was in the early 1980s. She did a workshop presentation at the school where I was employed.

At the time, I remember being struck by Dr. Hodgson's great knowledge and her forthright honesty. As mentioned by Dr. Smith, Dr. Hodgson's credentials speak for themselves. So what is the problem? My feeling on the whole situation is that Dr. Hodgson makes people uncomfortable. She strikes a nerve when she challenges people to think about their racism and prejudices. If we look at history and the people who forced us to look at the way we think and act, most of the messengers have not been well received. Many messengers have suffered great persecution. Dr. Hodgson is no different.

Road blocks have always been put up against. Dr. Hodgson beginning with the Ministry of Education of the former Government. She has even been accused of being a racist herself.

With the "dawning of a new day'' as our new Premier has said, I agree with Dr. Smith that Dr. Hodgson needs to be given the opportunity to impart her vast knowledge on Bermuda's young people.

AN ADMIRER Dr. Hodgson: The facts February 17, 1999 Dear Sir, Pam Gordon's bitterness at being rejected by black people at the polls is once again being revealed when she implies that Dr. Eva Hodgson is a self-confessed racist. When Ms Gordon makes those implications, she might just be playing politics. If she is serious, then she just doesn't know the facts or worse still, doesn't care.

The National Association for Reconciliation (NAR) which I co-founded with Dr.

Hodgson is widely credited for dragging a very reluctant UBP to deal with race relations. Consequently, the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality was established following a narrow UBP victory at the polls in 1993.

The guest speakers at our first NAR forum at Centennial Hall in 1991 were both white people and they made presentations to sell-out crowds. One of our main strategies was to utilise white people to communicate to other whites about an issue that most people chose to ignore. Consequently, whites became active in NAR's executive committee.

These are the facts! Dr. Hodgson, who has sacrificed so much for so long (much like Dr. Gordon), can certainly be "accused'' of being pro-black, but certainly not anti-white.

She has probably been more critical of UBP blacks like Pam Gordon than whites who don't know any better! The UBP would be better served if they put aside their bitterness and disappointment at being crushed at the polls, and moved on to make a meaningful contribution as the loyal Opposition.

By acting the same way as they did when it was Government, the UBP is doomed forever.

K. MURRAY BROWN Co-founder, NAR Sandys Parish Gazette was insensitive February 17, 1999 Dear Sir, In my opinion, your newspaper has shown very poor judgment and total insensitivity towards the family and friends of Ms Madeline Joell. I think you would serve the community better if you paid tribute to Ms Joell until she had at least been laid to rest and save your speculation for a more appropriate time.

WENDY JANE City of Hamilton P.S. I also question the logic of featuring an article on body piercing and the achievements of an Italian chef on the same page, both of which were carried to the following page. Did you really think that the two articles complemented each other or are you just trying to fill space? Royal Gazette is biased February 12, 1999 Dear Sir, For 30 years, the Island has been run by a United Bermuda Party government.

During this period your daily newspaper has made no pretence about its right-wing allegiance. Anything written or said by UBP members has usually been given glorious headline attention, with any Progressive Labour Party rebuttals being relegated to the back pages. Likewise, any apparently negative references pertaining to the PLP is magnified across the front page in the most damning terms. Even your cartoonist, Peter Woolcock, seems to take obscene pleasure in ridiculing PLP members at every opportunity.

The 9th of November, 1998, marked an historic election result, the significance of which seems to have eluded this newspaper. I say this because even before our new government, the PLP, has finished its first 100 days, you continue to attach a blatantly disproportionate level of importance to any rhetoric emerging from the new Opposition ranks. If Pamela Gordon has a "beef'' with women wearing slacks in the House, it is "earth-shattering'' news. If Grant Gibbons expresses an opinion on, say, the price of tea in Chile you would think it was Henry Kissinger speaking to the UN. Maxwell Burgess takes it upon himself to share with us his ill-founded pessimism of life under a PLP government. With the level of coverage his cheap sentiments are getting, I can only assume that Armageddon is around the corner. More recently, Kim Young expressed her dismay at the choice of words our Chief Justice spoke in his summing up of a sexual assault trial. Of course, this dominated the front page of the weekend edition. Yet, in Friday the 12th's edition you print an article on how the Bar Council defended the Chief Justice's stance but you put it on Page 8!! I could go on about your treatment of black figures in this country generally, but there are not enough trees left in Brazil to print what I would have to say.

I do not expect your newspaper to be totally impartial. Few newspapers on the planet can claim such an attribute. The problem is, Mr. Editor, that it would appear that your standards seem to fall so woefully short of that attribute that it would be more appropriate to call you a UBP campaign newsletter than a proper newspaper. Don't you realise that just a tad more objectivity would give you so much more respect in this Island? With all due respect, Mr.

Editor, I think it is most unfortunate that the good people of this Island have had to resign themselves to your daily diet of brash partiality and manipulative reporting. Bermudians are intelligent people, and for the most part, well-educated. Therefore, Mr. Editor, why do you continue to insult our intelligence? I am not a politician. I speak on my own behalf as a citizen of this country who is simply hungry for a proper daily newspaper and I do not like being cheated of the truth.

DROP SHOT Ottawa, Canada Give residents status February 15, 1999 Dear Sir, Both the PLP and the UBP have strongly supported "human rights'', but politics sometimes seem to be more important.

I refer to the problem of the long-stay skilled and unskilled expats who have contributed their services, knowledge and enthusiasm to Bermuda.

It is patently unfair that these people should have to continue to "hang in limbo'' after having given the most productive years of their lives to Bermuda.

Now the PLP have the opportunity to support "human rights'' by insisting that the "20-year'' expats be granted full Bermuda status.

The new Government can see that favourable legislation is quickly introduced.

Quo fata ferunt.

LONG TERM RESIDENT Paget Unfashionable? Good! February 15, 1999 Dear Sir, Re: Deidre Stark's review of the "Quartette''.

"Fantastic show but a shame the reviewer was looking for the Spice Girls.'' I didn't realise I was going to a fashion show on Friday night when I went to the Quartette's performance. I thought I was going to listen to four talented women perform their art...which is singing. Would sequined jackets have made the performance any better...no. Would I have enjoyed the performance more if the group had jumped around the stage with "verve and show stopping cha-cha-cha'' like the Rolling Stones...absolutely not.

The reviewer devoted two-thirds of her space to what the Quartette wore, and to making comparisons to the Spice Girls and Mick Jagger...and gave less attention to the group's wonderful vocal performance. I am thrilled that there are talented international artists who perform outside the commercial mould the reviewer espouses, and am relieved there are still performers who do not wish to emulate the Spice Girls! M. CAIRNEY City of Hamilton