To Arthur Hodgson for his speech to the Rotary Club and to you, Sir, for your editorial in today's paper I would like to say THANK YOU.

It would be wonderful if all past, present and future leaders cut out your editorial and placed it on their refrigerators so that they could read it each morning. For the love of Bermuda, why can't we all just go through each day simply, honestly and friendly? PROUD BERMUDIAN Devonshire Improve quality January 1, 2001 Dear Sir, Over the last two to three years the physical quality of your newspaper has been deteriorating on a constant basis: - the pages are badly folded, - pages are creased to the point of being almost impossible to read, - printing on one page is bleeding onto the opposite page, often totally obscuring the text, - pages have `track' marks from top to bottom running through text (and the crossword), - some pages are very heavily inked while the opposite page is so pale it is almost blank, - one double page advertisement lately looked as if a car with dirty tyres had gone over it a few times.

Now that the holiday season is coming to an end, can one hope that this problem will be addressed? CHARMA K. YUILL Warwick Dismay at debate January 4, 2001 Dear Sir, Having recently been home for the Christmas period I was dismayed at the apparent revitalisation of the Independence debate. Although there have been no calls from Government Members of Parliament (that I am aware of) to discuss this issue, there have been calls from some Government party activists and Opposition Members of Parliament for either action or clarification of this issue.

Although Bermudians are well aware of the Progressive Labour Party's feelings on Independence it is my feeling that the wish for Independence is as misplaced now as it was several years ago when the United Bermuda Party was foolish enough to pursue this goal without a clear mandate from the electorate. This mistake ultimately contributed to the UBP's fall from government.

I urge the Progressive Labour Party to make a clear statement on the issue of Independence to clear the air not only for business, but also for young Bermudians still hoping for British citizenship.

Although the British Government has stalled on the issue of citizenship for members of its Overseas Territories, it is important that any decision on Independence comes after Bermudians have been granted the opportunity to choose to live, work and gain experience in the big bad world. As many Bermudians know, both Bermuda-based international companies and local companies alike value overseas experience, despite the excellent in-house training available to Bermudians.

The Progressive Labour Party touted itself three years ago as the "Party of Youth'' and was elected by an unprecedented turnout of young people. These same young people expect the Government to serve their best interests -- which, in fact, is ruling out Independence and waiting for citizenship to be granted so that worldly experience can be gained. Just ask our Bermudian footballing heroes, other athletes and many others across the Bermudian Community who have been held back because they only had the right to live and work on "the Rock''.

Bermuda is undoubtedly the best place in the world to live and work, bring up children and generally enjoy life, but this can only sincerely be appreciated through the experience gained by living and working abroad. By denying young people the right to choose whether to take the offer of British citizenship -- by nullifying their choice through Independence -- would be wrong and false.

Although many in the older generations may not have the need or the urge to be a British citizen, they must think of their children and their children's children and the future of Bermuda in sustaining a vibrant and competitive nation.

A BERMUDIAN OVERSEAS London, England The best in the world? December 14, 2000 Dear Sir, I listened to the People's Talk Show (Everest DaCosta) on December 12. I tried several times to call but could not get through, so I decided to put pen to paper and, as a taxi operator, I would like to try and clear some things up.

Bermuda has the best taxi service in the world, friendliest and most courteous drivers and also the cleanest and best-looking taxis. Definitely not true, that there are people waiting for taxis for an hour or an hour and a half.

You may, and I'll say it again, you may have to wait once in a while for about 20 to 30 minutes depending on the situation of where the taxis are located.

Remember you have to wait at the bank in a line, at TCD in a line, you have to wait in restaurants and I can go on and on. This is not a microwave world but there is no way people are waiting on a regular basis for a taxi any serious length of time.

I travel and everywhere I go you have to wait for a taxi, sometimes 30 to 40 minutes.

Another thing, I heard one caller say that taxi drivers are out at Hamilton Princess or at the airport playing cards, reading the newspaper or just standing around talking.

I can assure the caller that there isn't any driver leaving home in the morning with intentions of going to Hamilton Princess or the airport to play cards or read a paper. The drivers are at these places waiting for jobs, sometimes you have to wait an hour or two, so drivers either read, play cards or clean their taxis to pass the time.

Another caller suggested putting another 400 taxis on the road, which is crazy because right now there isn't enough work in the off-season for 600 taxis.

Adding another 400 would just make the situation worse.

People are saying that hotels are having to wait on taxis, but that hardly happens because we only have four major hotels, Hamilton Princess, Southampton Princess, Elbow Beach and Sonesta Beach and 98 percent of the time you have taxis waiting in the yards of these hotels for work, taxis that run the street and taxis at the airport.

Again, I'll say once in a while at the airport you may run short of taxis, and this is because flights sometimes come in late and put the passengers back to back. This does not happen too often.

Another thing, there is at least a dozen or more taxis off the road at any given time waiting on car parts to be repaired. Also, does anyone take into account when the taxi has to wait, e.g. you come in for a job, you go to pick up and when you get there they are not ready and ask you to wait another ten minutes and they get upset when you turn your meter on while you are waiting.

There are those at the airport who have to wait two or more hours because the flight is late, so it's the taxi driver who waits the longest and he doesn't get paid for waiting. I'm sure if Government took a poll on the taxi service, of the people who use it on a regular basis, they would find out that the biggest majority is quite satisfied with the service they receive, even if they have to wait once in a while.

One way of providing a better service to an already good working service is to use the dispatch companies you already have and require that everyone has a radio. This way, you will always have a taxi within radio contact.

TAXI OPERATOR St. David's P.S. One should bear in mind that taxi owners are operating a business. They have the right as private business owners to run their business as they see fit. It is going to be very difficult to have all taxis under one umbrella.

Not everyone wants to join such a company, they should not be forced to join.

Leave my pension alone January 5, 2001 Dear Sir, LEAVE MY PENSION ALONE! The first sign of a government in financial difficulty -- "Let's use the pension funds''.

Just a few percent now, but how much more once the trend has been set? People of Bermuda, you better make your views known now before this gets out of hand.

Because if you don't you will turn 65 and find out "Oh, sorry, it's all been used for other more worthy causes, like housing''.

I have put thousands into that pension fund and it is only a few years before I would like to start getting some of it back. And there must be many more like me. Don't just sit back and let them use your pension. Tell them to find another way. If they can afford champagne and first class tickets and big cars, they can find a way to get the money.

BUT LEAVE MY PENSION ALONE! WORRIED PAGET Price check on Phones January 8, 2001 Dear Sir I am writing in reference to the taking of equipment and subsequent termination of the callback service Globaltel.

I have a question for BTC, why has it taken a call back service to change the huge prices charged to Bermudians and expats alike? For example, my long distance phone bills were approx $550 a month with BTC 12 month ago. I was introduced to Globaltel and my bills dropped to $60 with BTC and about $50 with the Globaltel long distance service, quite a savings.

ow the phone companies have changed their long distance rates from approx $1.25 a minute to 25 cents, that's a huge drop in rate. Is it fair to say the phone companies of Bermuda had been grossly over-charging all theses years and then when they couldn't compete lowered their prices? I am surprised the Government doesn't have regulators to govern the prices being charged to its people and expats alike.

If this was the case then maybe Northrock world have to lower its prices as well.

COMPETITION IS GOOD Southampton