In recognition of the importance of readers' contributions to the letters page, the newspaper each week selects a Letter of the Week, with a book prize courtesy of Longacre Press.
This week's winner is T. Gerrity, of Dunedin, for his letter on the Southern Sinfonia.
He receives a copy of 100 New Zealand Pop Culture Stories by Mitchell Hawkes; $26.99; Random House.
Concerning the fate of the Southern Sinfonia: the problem is that of all the four main centres, Dunedin is the only one without adequate string teaching; students can never get beyond the stage of being averagely good amateurs.
Those who are seriously ambitious need to go to Christchurch or overseas as early as possible to avoid getting into bad habits that are so famously hard to eradicate in the teenage years.
It is a tough call and can be extremely costly.
Even so, the Sinfonia attracts large audiences and therefore thoroughly deserves support from bureaucrats isolated in Wellington who arguably ought to be the ones delivering the so-called ''leadership'' - a handy abstract concept which has not been clearly defined.
T. Garrity
Dunedin
