Annual income

Press, 31 March 1989, Page 8

Annual income

Sir, —No-one in New Zealand could earn SIM a year; acquire, maybe! Examine, for fair relativity: a fully qualified, top tradesman earns $25,000 a year; the top politician earns $145,000, this being 40 times and seven times respectively less than that of a top executive. If the top executives of Brierley and Fletcher Challenge are receiving the SIM pay-outs then the shareholders in these companies must wonder if that is why there is only a 5 per cent yield on their investments. Under the Muldoon era, at least the SIM was taxed at 66 per cent but, in its infinite wisdom, this socialist Cabinet consented to a 33 per cent reduction in the top tax rate. This gives a nest egg of $330,000 a year to the man on a SIM-a-year salary, while the tradesman on $25,000 receives a mere pittance by comparison. This disclosure highlights the economic barbarism which is in our midst. —Yours, etc., D. NICOL. March 26, 1989. Mice

Sir, —Sue Hampton’s article, “Winter’s coming” (March 22) caused me great distress; so much so that I could not eat my breakfast. All through that day in my mind I kept hearing the crash and clatter of mouse traps executing those lovely little bright-eyed bundles of furry cuddliness. How could anyone relish the thought of terminating the life of such timid wee creatures? I suggest that a nicer way of disposing of these little beauties is to soak some wheat grains in a good single-malt whisky for two days; put the soaked grain into a saucer and place under the hot-water cylinder. The mice, being as Sue says, ~ f—

“downright gregarious,” will have a wing-ding of a' party. The sozzled mice can then be picked up, placed in a box with several aspirins and taken to the countryside and released.—Yours, etc.,

MO. SOUTHAM. March 23, 1989.