Kai for thought: Letters, 21 January

The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Here you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.

Diners should expect peace

Having owned and operated two dining establishments (Olivers Licensed Restaurant and Morton Estate Vineyard Restaurant 1981-1997) in the Tauranga/Bay of Plenty area I respect and support the decision made by Robin Feron to request that the parents remove their disruptive child as Robin's prime concern was for his customers to experience and enjoy peaceful environment at his cafe.

Parents with disruptive kids should be made aware of the noise that their children create in cafes and restaurants .

Customers have the right to expect a level of comfort and serenity when dining out.

This also applies to unruly kids in supermarkets who run riot uncontrollably because of their ineffective parents.

Oliver Pasquale, Welcome Bay

Open all hours

Re Emergency services are hard to obtain (News, Jan 16)

We would like to say that at Bethlehem Dental Centre we do provide emergency care and not just for our own patients - all new patients are welcome too.

We are listed in Yellow Pages and on the net where we offer same-day emergency treatment during weekdays and, for extreme emergency pain, we will see you on the weekend.

We were open and very busy right through the Christmas/New Year period and would have given Ms Bailey a same-day appointment had she phoned.

Phone our team on (07) 579 1323.

Yuri Aseev, Bethlehem Dental Centre

It's killing Maori

Finally we are getting real about smoking and showcasing nicotine for the deadly drug it is.

Nicotine causes more deaths than all other so-called class A drugs put together, yet it is socially accepted and on display for all to see in shops across the country.

A survey released by Otago University shows 45 per cent of our kohanga reo teachers smoke and every second Maori smoker will eventually die from smoking related diseases. So what does that say to us about what we are doing to ourselves?

We jump up and down about Rena and other environmental threats to our people, how about smoking as an inconvenient truth that is filling Maori with poison and wiping us out.

Its never too late to give up - my mother gave up at 80 and I gave up at 50.

Besides not smelling like an ashtray, spending $100 a week on the habit and hopefully living longer to enjoy our mokopuna, it is the wasted time that is the silent cost invoiced to tomorrow's tamariki.

Smokers spend an hour every day, five weeks every year of their bosses time - who in fact are paying for them to kill themselves and anyone else who is downwind.

Now surely that is a requirement for future employees not to have on their CVs when applying for a job.

Kai for thought huh?

T Kapai, Te Puna

Time to hit back

We are sickened to learn of the situation in Featherston and many other places in New Zealand; the thought of lovely old people being afraid to venture out at night because of infant gangsters fills us with frustrated rage.

Respect for police must be mandatory for all, including minors.

Two letters (January 10) bring some hope. We so wholeheartedly endorse Steve Brown's views. Bring on castration, stop pussyfooting.

Victims must be enabled to strike back.

Thanks a million also to Dave Finney, his letter neatly stated the true facts on the "so-called" global warming hoax. Odious Al Gore made a fortune from this myth. What's in it for Nick Smith?

A M GOODLAND,Te Puna

Touching concern

I would personally like to thank friends, family and customers for their kind words and concern after the recent robbery at our premises.

Also to the Tauranga police for their fantastic effort resulting in a prompt arrest of the offender.

And, finally, to my amazing staff for dealing with such a traumatic situation so bravely.

Simon Hodgson, Bureta pharmacy