GARDEN OF EDEN: HUGH Pender made a interesting point concerning evangelism in schools (HAS, Mar 16) but he forgets to mention that not only will evolution not be taught, but children won't be told that the Garden of Eden is a Middle Eastern creation myth found nowhere else, or why there are so many creation myths.

They will not be taught why, of the 600 surviving flood myths, only a handful relate to Noah, whilst the remaining all relate to the ending of the Ice Age.

Nor will they be taught that the only changes which take place at the Tower of Babel are linguistic not physical, or why the physical world as seen in the Old Testament is limited to the Middle East.

Because, if they did so, they would soon realise that, whilst the Bible, Torah and Koran have much to be praised, they are the beliefs, myths and traditions of specific related Middle Eastern tribes with which the majority of people on this planet have no physical or racial connection other than the out of Africa migration.

Whilst to take them all literally is to deny the physical existence of all non-Jews and non-Arabs. - CT Riley, Spennymoor.

NEVILLE FEARNEYHOUGH

IT was with regret that I read of the death of former Darlington town clerk Neville Fearneyhough who, along with the late Alan Carling, interviewed me when I applied for a post with the council.

Mr Fearneyhough was the proud wearer of the "silkworm" having landed by parachute in occupied Europe during the Second World War. I seem to remember that Mr Fearneyhough eluded the enemy for some time and, when imprisoned, made another bid for freedom.

Like many of those who served in the war, Mr Fearneyhough kept his experiences very much to himself. He would have been a young man at that time and it is due to his efforts and those of his comrades that we have the freedoms which we now enjoy. - John W Antill, Darlington.

PAY RATES

THE Women and Work Commission is right to call for better access to data on pay rates across the labour market so that people can make well-informed career choices.

This will benefit those who then opt to work in more highly paid fields. It will also help those who remain in lower paid ones, because the more responsive that labour is to differences in pay, the narrower these differentials can become.

The Commission is wise to stop short of backing compulsory equal pay reviews and audits, which would arbitrarily declare quite different jobs to be "of equal value". That would enable women to gain higher pay without many of them moving out of their traditional occupations. The measure of whether a job is underpaid should simply be whether there is difficulty recruiting and retaining suitable staff for it.

If women tend to be unfairly treated, then presumably a business that employed only women could attract more capable staff for a lower wage bill and so be more profitable?

Among the individuals making up the average pay rate for women there will be many who are genuinely hard done by and many who are already rewarded up to or beyond the level they merit. I suspect that if we take positive action to increase this average it will be the latter who cream off most of the benefit and the deserving who, again, get least. - John Riseley, Harrogate.

LOANS

AFTER all the furore surrounding the loans to the Labour Party, it is a bit rich of the Conservatives and Liberal democrats to criticise.

For example, as documented by the journalist Andrew Pierce, the Conservative Party received £16m of loans prior to May 2005, £2m of which came from Lord Laidlaw, who was nominated to the House of Lords by former Tory leader Michael Howard, and made a lord later on that recommendation.

And as for the Liberal Democrats, they accepted £2.4m from businessman Michael Brown, who is based in Switzerland - and under electoral law cannot give more than £400 as he is the owner of an offshore business. - Tom Blenkinsop, Marton.

NUDISTS

ALTHOUGH we do not have a particular sunny climate in the North-East, I would like to a see a nudist beach in the region, where nudists can walk around freely without causing uproar and getting themselves arrested .

I once visited a nudist beach in Germany where people wandered around the shoreline naked and relaxed in the sun.

Nudity should not be a crime and if there are no children around then adults should be able to sunbathe naked without being labelled as a pervert.

Surely a nudist beach would be a big hit in the North-East? - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

STANHOPE PARISH COUNCIL

RE the letter from Mrs Martin (the wife of the former chairman of Stanhope Parish Council) (HAS, Mar 17).

The fact is that if requests for extra hours and money requested by the former clerk had been agreed, the salary (then just under £4,000) would have been in excess of £12,000.

There was no extra work and, given the resolution of July 15, 2005, the clerkship was vested in three people, myself included.

The chairman refused to accept the council's decision and hand over the books.

Perhaps people who tell a story should tell the whole story. - County Councillor John Shuttleworth, vice chairman, Stanhope Parish Council.

SCHOOLS

OUR country is trying to be multi-cultural and yet our Government is reverting to culturally biased schooling. Finance is to be accepted from a source with sufficient funds.

Finance rarely comes without strings. Will there be an outcry when the only local school is financed by Muslims or Jews or devil worshippers?

We could even have a Humanist school which would not recognise the need for any religion.

Multi-culturalism must recognise that all cultures can include good citizenship and not ascribe this to a particular creed.

Please let us have state education which does not involve bias towards any race or creed.

Maybe schools should give time and space for voluntary attendance at classes instructing on religions and history. It was many years after leaving school that I realised that Britain did not heroically win all its battles and that Christianity does not necessarily bring good in its wake, even when they are British-born Christians. - Derek A Smithson, Ormesby.

EXCESSIVE SECURITY

I phoned Northumbrian Water to request information on the installation of a water meter in my home.

Before I was allowed to explain the reason for my call, I was asked for my customer reference number, name, address and telephone number. Next, they wanted my date of birth.

I was told that this was "for security in case someone tries to access your bank account details". What nonsense.

For the record, I did not give my date of birth and was promised that the requested information will be posted to me.

I believe that the more people who know such personal details, the more likely a security penetration becomes. - Colin Woodward, High Shincliffe.