Letters: Baked beans have place in hampers for needy

Your correspondent N Littler is right to point out the monotony of spaghetti and baked beans in cans-for-the-poor drives. But spaghetti and baked beans are preferable to the expired can of chickpeas and jar of "lite" hollandaise sauce an acquaintance recently received in a food parcel from the Salvation Army.

C C McDOWALL
Rotorua

One does get concerned that a newly elected politician would say:

"Mr Coffey said he would now be able to give Waiariki a voice in Government.

"That's where the changes are made. I look forward to bringing some significant change to the people of Rotorua, the Bay of Plenty and New Zealand as a whole."

Significant change ... Voice in Government. Has he been living under a stone since the inception of politics in New Zealand? Has he read this newspaper of recent to understand Rotorua is undergoing improvement and change and most of us would prefer a "steady as you go" approach, not a "significant change'"approach?

BARRY SINCLAIR
Rotorua

When we watched Carl Sagan's Cosmos TV show in the '80s, he told us that Earth was in no particular spot in the universe, orbiting an average star.

As Sagan had a PhD in physics, we all assumed he was right. Lately, however, it turns out that we are, instead, pretty near the centre of the universe, orbiting a star that is unique among observed stars.

Australian astronomer John Hartnett, PhD, a world leader in his speciality, has produced images of concentric rings of galaxies encircling our galaxy, (using real galaxy data from current mainstream research). Furthermore, it is now common knowledge among solar researchers that our sun has no equivalent: it is unlike any other observed star in its characteristics, leading some astronomers to ask, "Is the sun a star?"

G J PHILIP
Rotorua