A choice like this has major lifelong consequences and fails to resolve identity issues. Parents and counsellors should be able to advise young people to wait and get through puberty before making such a profound step. If a 12-year-old is not considered old enough to be at home alone, why should they be old enough for this kind of decision?
M DONNE-LEE
Aramoho
Whanganui has a rat pandemic.
I brought a bucket of rat baits from the Stock and Station agent. I put two holes in a spaghetti tin and threaded a six-inch nail through the tin, through the bait, and through the far side of the tin.
It's so the rats can't take the bait away and bury it. These tins attract rats better than the purchased bait stations.
For nine months the rats and mice were eating eight baits a night. Thirteen baits on Christmas night.
I was poisoning eights rats or 16 mice a night for months. During winter it has reduced to one bait a night. I recommend everyone to lay poison on their boundary, but not where children are present.
Rats and mice spread a long list of diseases and chew the electrical wiring in the ceiling of houses, causing fires.
Dogs and cats and other pets attract rats and mice with the odd food droppings.
P MASKERY
Whanganui
I agree with D. Partner's comment re the Cadbury ad assuring us there is a glass and a half in ''everyone'' - but at the risk of sounding pedantic, I wonder if it is an oblique reference to the ''milk of human kindness'' that is supposedly in us all.
The little boy shared his chocolate on the train and the little girl used her treasures to buy her mum a bar of chocolate.
Sadly, it is more likely to be just another glitch in grammar.
LYN VAN GEMERDEBN
Springvale
