Well, Mr Field, let’s look at who is committing the crimes.

What say you go to the Gundagai Local Court next time it sits and look at the court list.

You can then publish that list in this newspaper so the people of Gundagai can determine whether those named are "persons of ... appearance".

We will call it the "Field dob-in service".

You see, Mr Field, it is people like you who preach intolerance who get things so horribly wrong.

On January 15, 1840, a ship, the Crusader, arrived in Sydney. There were 286 passengers.

The Sydney Herald reported they were "ignorant and unskilled Irish Roman Catholics that were flooding the colony".

Included in the passengers were members of the Hughes family. They were the ascendants of Tom Hughes, who was PM Gorton's attorney general and left politics to resume his law practise.

His daughter Lucy was the Lady Mayoress of Sydney and her husband is PM Malcolm Turnbull.

You sound a lot like that Sydney Herald reporter Mr Field, and you, like him, are so far wrong it is not funny!

I HAVE one question to ask Tony Thompson (DA, letters, “What’s in a name?”) and my brother has another one.

In his “Gundamundra Shire” idea for the new Cootamundra-Gundagai merged entitiy, why has “Mundra” got six letters and “Gunda” only five?

And my brother, who lives about 60km north west of me, wants to know why Gundagai is mentioned first?

COULD someone please explain to me why both state and federal governments are obsessed with having a budget surplus?

The recent prime example is the NSW government boasting a $3.4 billion surplus for the 2015 to 2016 financial year.

One could be mistaken to think that our politicians are running a business and want to maximise profits so they can pay their shareholders.

If this “good” fiscal management is at the cost of reduced funding to our public schools, health care, transport systems (both roads and rail), local councils, libraries, communications, electricity, need I go on; then I am not impressed.

With a larger population and increased running costs, we need to spend more, not less, on services to the public.

WE WERE lied to again recently at a public meeting run by the administrator and general manager of our merged council.

At the meeting, we were told why the merged council was to be called Gundagai Council (because of the historical record of Gundagai).

It was stated that it may be possible to change it to Gundagai Regional Council and that would not be able to be changed until 2017.

Then if the new elected council wanted a name change, they could, after consultation with the community, set in motion the proposed change if desired. But no!

Two days later at another meeting, it was approved the merged council be known as Cootamundra - Gundagai Council. So much for the statement at the previous meeting.