table of current lowest round trip airfares for a number of international destinations. They are as follows: Bermuda $390 Frankfurt $288 London $238 Nassau $337 Paris $268 The Nassau and Paris fares are available from Delta and American. The Nassau fare is also available from US Airways.

Enough said! DAVID J. MURPHY Devonshire School will survive March 22, 2000 Dear Sir, In reference to the article about St. George's Preparatory closing in the future, this opinion is ridiculous. As a former student of St. George's Prep., I feel that the new or should I say present parents of the pupils need to realise that when I attended that school it was one stanza from Primary 1 through Primary 7. My class consisted of nearly 30 people.

My two siblings and most of my cousins also attended this school. My family has done fine with the education that we received from that institute of education. When my older cousins attended St. George's Prep., it was also a one stanza school. The number of students permitted to be in a class has diminished drastically since I graduated from elementary school, which was not even ten years ago.

I had to travel to school by bus and it was no big deal for me, and I would be at school by 8 a.m.

ST. DAVID'S RESIDENT Upset at ferry changes March 14, 2000 The following was sent to Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown and copied to the Royal Gazette.

Dear Minister Brown, I am writing to you with concern over the change in the new ferry schedule to be put in place for April 17, 2000. I believe your mind was made up before you even had your first meeting with us in 1999 because you already sent the schedules to be printed. You have also raised the fare for the ferries (and buses) yet have decreased service. Our voices obviously fell on deaf ears.

What happened to the promises of looking into extra parking for cars nearby the ferry stops for us to be able to use the ferry service? -- Ignored or you didn't try hard enough!? What is going to happen when the Belmont is going to open again? Will the Schedule change again? You are going to create more traffic coming into the city because the last ferry out of Hamilton for the Paget/Warwick route is around 6.15 p.m. or wait until 9.00 p.m. for the next one. So, for those of us that work until 6.30/7 p.m. in the evenings, we are going to be forced to take our cars to town, thus creating more congestion on the roads and parking problems (which I thought you were trying to eliminate).

The people who live on Hinson's Island who don't own their own boats or who don't have the option of being able to moor their boats in Hamilton are going to be held hostage. If we want to go out for the evening for dinner or a show, we have to be finished before 9.30 p.m. otherwise -- ??? I usually catch the 3.15 p.m. Warwick ferry, along with approximately 10-12 others (Mount St. Agnes students and others going home) almost every day. You have now created a problem for us. I rely on that 3.15 p.m. ferry to get me across the Harbour to get my child just after 3.30 p.m. from school. Now the next Ferry doesn't leave Hamilton until 3.45 p.m., causing my child to wait at the school until after 4 p.m. before I get there. So, now I will be forced to take the bus -- 1 less passenger to worry about.

So, now we are going to be forced to start taking the bus or our own vehicles in Hamilton -- and then you'll be complaining that people are not using the ferry service -- WELL -- whose fault is it anyway?! This Ferry service is an essential service -- not a profit making business. It is supposed to be a service provided for the people of this country and for the tourists! I believe that's why we also pay taxes! Again, I believe your mind was made up already and I believe you `really' don't care about the voices of `your' people.

SOON TO BE EX-FERRY USER Warwick Legalise the weed! March 16, 2000 Dear Sir, I'd like to express my opinion on the legalisation of marijuana. In all my 28 years I have never heard of anyone murdering another person or killing someone while operating a vehicle or of any type of violence while under the influence of marijuana.

There has not been any case, to my knowledge, of any domestic, sexual or child abuse resulting from marijuana use. I have never heard of any marijuana -- related robberies taking place.

I have never heard of any withdrawal symptoms from marijuana of a person kicking the marijuana habit cold turkey or needing professional help to get off marijuana. There have been no broken homes, destroyed marriages and lives due to marijuana use.

There are no illnesses or deaths resulting from using marijuana -- in fact as we all know already marijuana is used in many medical cases as a treatment.

They say marijuana decreases the ability to have children. There are plenty upon plenty of people who use marijuana who have perfectly healthy and well taken care of children.

Alcohol and cigarettes, however, are a totally different story. Millions of people are dead, millions of people are dying and causing others to die because of alcoholism and smoking cigarettes.

Alcohol contributes to countless road related accidents and deaths, not to mention broken families, destroyed relationships and marriages.

Rehabilitation and counselling are needed for a lifetime to cope with the effects from alcoholism and to stay away from alcohol.

Prescription drugs (mostly all prescription drugs are addictive) and many other methods are offered as a way to kick the deadly smoking habit from which millions of people are dead and dying. Yet these two highly addictive and deadly drugs are legal, openly sold and easily obtainable by our young people, some of whom start to ruin their lives at a very tender age. Where, I ask, is the sense in that? Though I am not a marijuana smoker, if I did not have a great deal to lose, I'd wear a sign saying "Legalise the Weed'' and walk around town too.

LOOKING FOR AN EXPLANATION Pembroke Rugby players pleased March 17, 2000 Dear Sir, A rather worn out group of Canadian rugby players have been back in the land of ice and snow for almost four months now. The Canadian Classics began preparations for the World Rugby Classic 2000 when we set foot on the plane for our trip home to Canada. We were treated like family yet again and cannot thank our billets, hosts and tournament organisers enough. We boast non-stop about the beauty and friendliness of Bermuda and our friends and families back home get sick of hearing about it for eleven and a half months of the year (too bad).

The 1999 Classic was the fifth year we have been invited to this wonderful event and the warmth and hospitality gets better every year. We would like to offer a sincere "THANK YOU!!'' to all of our hosts and friends down there (too many to mention individually) but especially Susan Gorbutt for all of her wonderful organisational work. THE CANADIAN CLASSICS RUGBY TEAM STW's reasons quite clear March 11, 2000 Dear Sir, I first heard about the offshore firm STW pulling out of Bermuda in a brief radio broadcast. then I got my copy of The Royal Gazette later and read the entire article. I was shocked, therefore, to hear what Paula Cox had to say on television's evening newscasts. How long will she be in denial? Did she read the entire account of Mr. William Williams' reasons for his company leaving Bermuda? I did not even have to read between the lines, because Mr. Williams made the reasons quite clear. Read the article again Paula, read every word.

Mr. Williams indicated that although Bermuda is a very expensive place to do business, its light regulations in the past was a major factor in offsetting the high cost. He said his company was concerned about the new work permit policies that threaten to cripple or drive away the very business that provide the jobs.

This does not sound like a business that has been thinking "for a long time'' about pulling out of Bermuda as Paula Cox says. This sounds like a company who is fed up with the arrogant attitude of this Government.

WATCHING TOO Warwick Food for thought March 20, 2000 Dear Sir, On reading Mr. Raymond Russell's letter to you in today's Royal Gazette I find I do not agree with his ideas on what the UBP did for Bermuda. The UBP kept Bermuda on a very good economic level and by doing so, assured us all of being able to eat, and eat well.

It does not seem to be apparent to all of us -- Bermudians -- that without the expatriates in International Business here, bringing in dollars from the outside of Bermuda, we would not have the foreign currency to buy our food.

Our local population cannot be fed on local produce alone. We must import foreign foods to fill our tummies. If we do not have foreign dollars coming in we will starve.

I heard one lady with a Bermudian accent on a talk show describing these foreigners who supply us with foreign dollars, say: "They live better than we do!'' So who cares how "they'' live as long as "they'' keep the supply of foreign dollars coming in, so that we can eat.

JANUS Pembroke Get it right the first time March 16, 2000 Dear Sir, I feel compelled to thank Senator David Burch for enlightening the Country to the inner workings of the current government. This is clearly the transparency that we have been promised, and that we have all been looking for. A welcome trend.

We have now been reliably informed, by a close member of the inner sanctum no less, than it is all right for this government to amend any piece of legislation that they introduce 100 times in order to get it correct, particularly when it is so flawed as to be embarrassing when first released.

Incidentally, is it not the case that we the taxpayers are paying $125,000 a year to the person responsible for drawing up and presenting such legislation to Parliament? I would however request that Col. Burch (out of respect I use the military address now) does not, in the instance of war in Bermuda, lead the troops into battle. Generally speaking the enemy almost always will only allow you one shot, and that normally from ambush, before he retaliates. One hundred shots are probably not possible as death may occur before the second shot is fired.

I suggest it would be much better to get the first shot on target rather than waste vast sums of the taxpayers money on 100 shots.

PHIL CRACKNELL St. George's