letters to the editor . the open road . Sir , - could not nuclear disarmers consult with the police to arrange sit-downs at teatime on Sundays during autumn ? no doubt legislation could fix a suitable scale of fines to help finance national defence and provision could be made for the passage of ambulances , etc - Bothways . car rallies . Sir , - in your last issue there was a letter in praise of courteous and considerate local drivers . indeed , ever-increasing noise is one of the problems of our time and it seems to me that quite unnecessary uproar is created by those drivers from afar who take part in car rallies during the night . there was one through Fishpond during the early hours of Sunday , 10th September , with a check point a few yards from my home . all the cars stopped there and then roared up over the hill opposite ( Coney Castle ) in low gear . the noise was shattering and I could even smell the exhaust fumes . this went on for more than two hours , but those who manned the check point arrived with a flourish well in advance . I have ascertained that it was a Reading car club , so a good many people on the route must have had their night &apos;s rest destroyed . it all seems so unnecessary . rally promoters favour this route . we get several each year and no doubt other places get their share . - Sheila Redmond ( Mrs ) , Peters Gore , Fishpond , Charmouth . paddle steamers . Sir , - in this age of rapid change in the forms of public transport , it is heartening to read from time to time of small but determined groups of historically-minded citizens who are striving to preserve representative specimens of older types of vehicle , such as veteran motor-cars , early buses and trams , notable examples of the railway engine , and so on , in order that the solid achievements of the past may not be entirely forgotten . two years ago the paddle steamer preservation society was formed to preserve in running order an example of that once so familiar , but now rapidly disappearing feature of our seaside towns , the faithful old paddle-steamer . a meeting of the paddle steamer preservation society will be held at the Lansdowne Hotel , the Lansdowne , Bournemouth , at 6 p.m , on 30th September , to form a Wessex branch and all supporters of paddle steamers will be most welcome . although the society has been active on the south coast since its formation , the central committee feel that a local branch would serve more closely the interests of the members . - J D Bonsall , provisional Secretary , Wessex branch , P.S.P.S , Loughrigg , 31 , Cowper Road , Moordown , Bournemouth . squirrels . Sir , - in your columns a Wiltshire farmer complained because he had seen people at Southbourne feeding squirrels . last week a resident of Mere was moaning because a squirrel had dared to eat nuts from a tree in her garden . both correspondents called the squirrels pests . I wonder . I suppose man , with his H-bombs , is n&apos;t . did the Wiltshire farmer expect the money used for purchasing nuts for squirrels to be handed instead to a fund for distressed farmers ? did the Wiltshire resident from Mere expect the squirrel to go off nuts , its natural food , and try eggs and bacon instead ? again I wonder . I have already asked in these columns how many of the grey squirrels &apos; sins are real and how many are purely imaginary . apparently nobody knows the answer . do n&apos;t be in a hurry to point out damaged trees in Grovely woods and scream look ! grey squirrels did that . the lordly pheasant can do more damage to a tree on a long winter &apos;s night than a dozen squirrels can in six months . - Orlando Glyn , Heneford Cottage , Chetnole , Sherborne , Dorset . Sir , - I have read with much interest Mrs Moule &apos;s letter about squirrels in the Sherborne area . I have many times in the past seen squirrels in the woods across the railway , but they have always been grey . this summer , however , there has been a red squirrel frequenting the slopes , and I have seen him several times in the trees by the New Road . once I surprised him in the litter basket , but he was not at all disconcerted . he jumped up , perched on the lip of the basket , and we regarded one another on more or less equal terms for some time at a distance of about two feet . on occasions , however , when I had my camera with me he must have been investigating Mrs Moule &apos;s garden . - H Martyn Cundy , the beeches , Sherborne . how to make friends . Sir , - as a recently-retired member of H.M overseas civil service , my wife and I have recently settled in Dorset . I feel that our experience may be helpful to the many people who are settling , on retirement , from other parts of Britain as well as from overseas , in the Bournemouth , Poole and Dorset area . shortly after our arrival we were told of the lecture course , run under the auspices of the workers &apos; educational association and the joint committee for adult education for Dorset . we found to our great pleasure that the lectures were conducted in a very friendly and almost informal atmosphere , and we have , in fact , made a number of very good friends . as these interesting and instructive lecture courses are about to start all over the country in the next two weeks , I would urge those newcomers to the area to find out the nearest course and to enrol . they will find immense interest in the lectures and will also make friends with people who have the same interests and outlook as themselves . these evening courses are held in all the main centres , and in a great many of the smaller towns and villages . I do hope that our happy experience may be of some help to reduce the inevitable loneliness which follows on a move to a new area . - P H Hamilton Bayly , Masanki Cottage , 25 , Tanyard Lane , Shaftesbury , Dorset . teachers &apos; salaries . Sir , - there seems to be some commotion - ballyhoo is the modern word - about teachers and their pay . it is not desired that teachers should be pledged to poverty . nor are they expected to do their work so whole-heartedly as to look for only a meagre material reward . but the fault of this affluent age is covetousness , and I hope that teachers are not unmindful that at the heart of the Christian religion is a cross which means the letter I with a line through it , and this means sinking self for the common cause . it would appear that teachers today are not really badly paid : far better than I was as a parish priest . only in my last year was it possible to make both ends meet on the income of the benefice , and this did not allow for a three months &apos; holiday . but the clergy did not rebel by going on strike . to talk of a clerical trades union as was recently done by a more or less junior cleric , seemed offensively mercenary minded . as one who has spent many hours teaching in elementary schools I am jealous for the honour of teachers , and Church day school teachers , in particular . let them not be afraid to endure hardness , if such exists , and show a good example . education as a profession , like other professions , has fluctuated and there was a time when teachers were shockingly underpaid . but it can not fairly be said that this is the case now . the Fisher act of 1918 decisively raised their status and pay , and this has gone on , for the Fisher act was not a standstill reform . in 1944 came the Butler act . let teachers continue to show diligent devotion to their work , and they will retain public respect . a dutiful teacher puts his back into his work and is apt to be hard and unbending . the diligent teacher puts his heart into his work because he loves it , and this is how I like to think of teachers today doing their work . in the course of more than 50 years &apos; experience I could give not a few signal instances of the same . - W H Williams , Barton St , David , Somerset . Sir , - I note with annoyance the sentence in a letter in your last issue , increasingly , arts graduates are being taken on as teachers without having any training . most people realize that a graduate has , ipso facto , had the best training that a teacher can have . graduates who intend to get on in the state system have , in their own interests , to conform and take the additional one-year course that is provided for them . it is to this course that your correspondent refers , presumably ; but in the minds of those graduates I know who have taken it , there is little doubt that for teaching purposes this type of additional training is a complete waste of time . if a prospective teacher wants to know something about e.g child psychology or the history of education , good luck to him . he can read a couple of books on each in the three months he has between going down from university in June and taking up his first post in September . but it seems fatuous that a teacher who is keen to start should be forced to spend a whole year on such unhelpful matters . the assumption that teaching is a job which requires post-graduate training in the university is one which should be combated at every turn . the key to good teaching lies in knowledge of one &apos;s subject , experience , and certain personal qualities which this training does nothing to develop . most , if not all , the one-year courses - it is the only useful thing about them - provide an opportunity for practice teaching : why should the new graduate not spend the whole year articled to good teachers in the schools ? - R G Penman , Silversmiths , Sherborne . civil defence . Sir , - you describe civil defence as a means of mitigating the frightful effects of a nuclear disaster , while at the same time you speak of the actions of the nuclear disarmers as an embarrassment . what a cosy thought ! perhaps your readers may have forgotten these statements : ( 1 ) a very few megaton bombs would obliterate the major population centres of this country ; ( 2 ) the whole country would be subject to fall-out radiation of high intensity ; ( 3 ) radiation sickness is a most unpleasant way of dying ; ( 4 ) the long-term effects of radiation are extensive and unavoidable ; ( 5 ) as a result of the current Russian tests it is estimated that next spring the radiation level will be at least 100 times that of natural background radiation , if no further bombs are exploded . may I commend to your readers a short article on the effects of the 100-megaton bomb , which appears in the current new scientist . civil defence has its purpose . it creates a sense of security , and , after all , the worst might never happen . but in my view we should be better employed in embarrassing the government in this matter . given four minutes &apos; warning from Fylingdales , which of your readers would be prepared to press the button which would send 100 million innocent people to their deaths ? what is our trouble ? either we have lost all moral sense , or we have developed a technique of double-think worthy of 1984 , or we just do n&apos;t understand the issues . - F Hodgson , Brendon , Common Mead Lane , Gillingham , Dorset . it &apos;s your money . Sir , - to reply point by point to Mrs Dungworth &apos;s letter would take too much space , so I offer some comments which may be helpful . some newspapers print quite lengthy reports of proceedings in parliament and documents issued by the stationery office give further details . so far as local councils are concerned a ratepayer can inspect a record of the proceedings on demand . many people prefer to ignore the facilities available and then grumble that they were not told . Professor Parkinson and others ignore one rather important factor in the present situation . during and after the war much work on capital projects ( roads , hospitals , houses , sewers , etc ) had to be severely curtailed with the consequence that there is much leeway to be made up now . 