With feral cats being implicated in at least 25 mammal extinctions in Australia and killing about 230 million Australian birds, reptiles and mammals each year surely, it's time to declare an all-out war on these invidious pests by way of a bounty.

A long-term plan needs to be introduced that allows pet cats to die naturally over say 15 years and then introduce a total ban on ownership of these killing machines.

Given such a long lead-in time it will allow cat owners to devote their affection to other pets and permit our native animals to regain a footing and control natural pests such as bush rats and mice.

Many cat owners are responsible and keep their cats housed, but unfortunately those less responsible make cat ownership untenable for everyone.

IT may be that "the court of public opinion" is not an appropriate vehicle for the determination of the Porter and Reynolds situations, however, all politicians should reflect upon the fact "the court of public opinion" is precisely where the results of elections are determined.

WHAT an unmitigated debacle the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle interview was. Did Harry expect his family to keep him and his wife from the family or royal purse when they both resigned and moved to America? How naive can one be? It is shameful the way they have made disparaging remarks about what is, after all, family matters into the public arena. Harry achieved much through his royal status and his work within the armed forces was much valued, a great shame that he chose to close his ties with "The Firm". How sad and distressing all this must be for the Queen and Prince Philip; they no doubt will carry on and will smile whilst they are doing so.

WITH Incat's reputation for building high-speed catamaran ferries which have been sold overseas to different countries they should be given an opportunity.

Their ferries do not get shipped out of Hobart but sail on their way to their new homes. People point at the Devil Cat and say that didn't work, look at how often sailings were cancelled. Things have progressed since then in shape design, length and capacity and you could run two ferries a day these days. Their designs have proven themselves over and over again and they deserve the chance to apply.

NONE of the recent articles on learning to love the mud showed a basic understanding of how the Tamar/North Esk estuary works.

In 1806, the system was in dynamic equilibrium; floods would scour and silt would return, just like today. However, in the interim, 15 million cubic metres has accumulated over the silt belt due to human interference. We created a sick and degraded ecosystem - hardly natural and certainly not lovable. It is possible to undo the damage to a certain extent but our motto must be work with nature for a chance of success whereas for 200 years we have worked against nature. This scientist for one will never abide by our new motto, love our failures.

WHEN I was a boy all timber was selectively logged for the timber industry.

Along came woodchip and selective logging trimmed all the second-grade trees from the forest. Then the Greens decided and bullied Forestry Tasmania into clear-felling because they reckoned that selective logging killed too many young trees. Re-deforestation was done by collecting seed and aerial seeding. This wasn't too productive so then windrowing and planting saplings took over and plantation timber moved into "native" species. Then the greens claimed too much farmland was being converted to plantations so they wanted the practice ceased, now they have tried to stop the use of plantation timber. Can't these clowns make their collective mind up?

WHAT a contradiction, "working royals".

They even have the nerve to call their family "the firm".

They're so far from reality, they believe they were born to reign.

ROSEMARY Armitage believes we missed an opportunity by not utilising the old LGH as a private hospital with an overpass walkway between the two hospitals.

We did have the walkway for several years, the last time I spotted it was in a paddock on the way to Brown Mountain Road.

Nevertheless, at the time many believed it should have been converted to a multi-storey car park to service the new LGH, this would have worked in many ways.

The existing car parking facilities would then have become medical areas, or maybe a co-located private hospital.

Sadly using the site for luxury apartments was more profitable, the site was practically given away by the government.

Much like the maternity hospital on High Street sold for $1 million, yet an offer of $11 million from St.Lukes was refused by that government. Was $1 million mates rates back then? Incidentally, it is back on the market, take note St.Lukes.