In a brief item in a local newspaper it says, quote: "The Senate has passed a bill requiring businesses to give the government racial statistics on their employees'', unquote.

This must apply to all Government departments, too, especially the entire spectrum of the Department of Education.

Will it? EDUCATOR London, England Club Med quandary July 23, 2000 Dear Sir, In 1997, the Hon. Quinton Edness stated that he believed that those staff the 11 workers who at that time had been injured at least from a moral point of view. The Hon. Alex Scott appears to be looking for a legal way out.

The Hon. Alex Scott recently made a statement that Club Med abandoned the property, in other words Club Med completely rejected any responsibility or claims. Then left Bermuda. According to reports, only Government bills were paid, while 11 workers were left without their just due.

It appears the 11 workers have a legal right to ownership of the property, as it appears they are the only ones who have not been paid and that the abandoned property has no legal ownership.

RAYMOND RUSSELL Pembroke Dog law has no teeth July 24, 2000 The following was sent to The Minister for the Environment Arthur Hodgson and copied to The Royal Gazette .

Dear Sir, The new legislation on dog control has no teeth.

While making things more difficult for responsible dog owners, it does not go far enough to regulate, punish and catch the anti-social young men who keep pit bulls for their macho image, for fighting and to guard their drug stashes.

These same young men are openly flaunting the laws of our land in many other ways. They can be seen walking their pit bulls with no licence tags on, running them behind motorcycles and pedal bikes seemingly with complete immunity and contempt for the laws.

Police need to be encouraged to stop this, not just ignore it. Give them the power to seize such dogs and arrest the owners.

The cases should be brought immediately before the courts with an order for humane destruction (of the dogs) unless there are special circumstances to be decided by the magistrate.

A recent 200 dollar fine by a magistrate for illegal pit bull breeding was ridiculous. It does not even cover the cost of preparing the file. These cases are hard to detect and bring to court and should automatically incur a heavy fine along with humane destruction, probably saving those poor creatures from much abuse and future distress.

Also, I feel that a ban should be placed on the breeding and importation of pit bulls, bull dogs, rottweilers, dobermans and mastiffs.

There will always be plenty of good crossbreeds available at the SPCA, unfortunately.

PETER D. COUNSELL Sandys Parish Good and bad advice July 21, 2000 Dear Sir, I have just received a copy of an informative leaflet "Health Matters'' from BF&M, which includes tips on driving safely. Here are a couple which I intend to incorporate into my local driving immediately: Break the lull of the road by taking a break every two to three hours; Pick routes that have hotels along the way so that you can get a good night's rest.

I trust other Bermuda drivers will adopt these sensible procedures.

While on the subject of road safety, may I request all drivers to show more consideration to other road users.

Travelling out of St. David's at 7.35 p.m. on Thursday July 20, I saw the driver of a car (registered 28859) pass within inches of two cyclists and then cut in early, causing one of them to swerve to avoid being knocked off. There was no traffic coming the other way so the driver had at least one and half lanes in which to execute a safe overtaking manoeuvre but, instead, chose a dangerous one.

While you may be safe in a two ton steel box, a cyclist is extremely vulnerable on our roads, and sending one to hospital for several weeks with a broken leg or collar-bone because of your dangerous driving is hardly the sociable thing to do.

ANDREW R. DOBLE City of Hamilton A real bargain July 20, 2000 Dear Sir, In your July 15 edition, "Helpful'' suggested that overseas lawyers, accountants, doctors and dentists be let in to Bermuda so that the community could get a price break from subsidising our overpaid and undertaxed resident "professionals''.

I found Helpful's deliberately denigrating use of quotes around the word professionals somewhat puzzling; as there is no Law/Accounting/Medical/Dental School in Bermuda, all of the professionals Helpful chose to insult received their training in and met the standards of Institutions located -- let me see -- Oh yes, "overseas'' (to use Helpful's word). As well, the majority of the listed resident professionals are from overseas as it is.

As far as being overpaid, I cannot speak for lawyers, accountants, or dentists, but, as a doctor, I do know that physicians in Bermuda are paid on average, between 30 and 50 percent of what physicians are paid in the US and slightly more than Canadian physicians. Considering the vastly higher cost of living in Bermuda compared to these two countries, doctors in Bermuda are actually very poorly paid. A few examples: 1) The highest paying surgical procedure I perform pays $1,800; this procedure in the US costs $5,000-12,000; 2) I had a patient who required urgent further surgery based on biopsy results obtained here; that further surgery would have paid me $150. As the patient had gone to the UK before the biopsy results were available, I contacted the patient abroad and advised that the procedure should not be delayed. It was done in the UK for a mere 800.

We all know that everything in Bermuda costs more. Well, not quite everything: doctor's fees are the best bargains in Bermuda.

DR. TERENCE ELLIOTT MD FRCS(C) City of Hamilton Equality for all July 25, 2000 Dear Sir, I would like to kindly point out that the term "Racial Equality'' refers to all races having the same rights and benefits regardless of there race. It is truly shocking to find out that the Gover nment's new Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE) only seems to be concearned with Bermuda's Black population. The last time I checked there were several Portuguese living in Bermuda. However, I wasn't satisfied with knowing that there was a large Portuguese community in Bermuda, so I went to my favorite source of information, the Internet.

Sure enough, I found the piece of information that I was looking for, and yes Mr. Lister, Portuguese refers to a race of people. Being Portuguese, it makes me angry that a Government would establish a programme on racial equality knowing full well that it is not equal for every person in Bermuda, or is Mr.

Lister just concerned with people of his own race.

CASEY St. George's An island paradise June 13, 2000 Dear Sir, As a first time visitor to your magical island, we wish to record our delight and amazement at the efficient manner in which your transportation operates -- what a pleasure to travel on buses and ferries which are punctual and spotlessly clean -- not to mention the friendliness of the drivers and skippers and crew.

While, and during the "Tall ships'' event, everything to do with transport functioned successfully, including the hospitality accorded the various crews of the Tall ships.

May we also express our praise for the cleanliness of beaches and surrounds and, last but not least, the warm friendliness of your people both old and young. If all allows we hope to return to your "paradise Island'' in the not too distant future.

SARAH & HARRY BRAUN Cape Town, South Africa