IN LETTERS to the Editor (The Examiner, September 11)  A.R.Trounson makes a point about donated clothing to charity op shops being sold, sometimes at fairly high prices. No doubt, most donors of these articles, do so with the hope that they will assist others who are in needy circumstances. Yes, I mean free, or at a very low price, that they may be able to afford. How many times do we see these op shops empty of “customers”?   Many of the customers may be well able to pay the asking price, and do so to supplement their wardrobe. Nothing wrong with that. But, where do we see the needy given an opportunity to put clothes on their backs, or the backs of their children? Op shops are not meant to be profit shops.

INSTEAD OF showing disinterest, it would have been better for West Tamar mayor Christina Holmdahl to admit she was unaware that John Batman was a racist murderer when asked about a bridge being named in his honour. Had the mayor contacted the Aboriginal centre or any historian she would have been told that in September 1829, Batman snuck up on a family of Aborigines asleep at their camp and around 11pm, “I ordered the men to fire upon them”, wounding or killing at least 10. The next morning Batman described traces of blood in all directions. He captured two men, a woman and a child, but finding it impossible for the two men to walk said, “I was obliged to shoot them”. Surely it is time to take this man’s name from the bridge.