Readers are invited to submit letters for publication under these guidelines.

OPINION: We are very happy to hear of Kerry Prendergast's decision to seek re-election as Wellington's mayor.

OPINION: The acquittal of perpetrators of vandalism by a Wellington jury (March 18) is another blight on New Zealand's international credibility and will probably draw another comment of support from terrorist organisations.

OPINION: I am appalled by the verdicts in the Waihopai Three case. Frankly, the defence of "a greater good" is little different from that used by Osama bin Laden, Hamas suicide bombers or even the IRA.

OPINION: You bemoan "the suspicion of science that permeates a sometimes ill- informed community". Yet on the facing page you provide perfect grounds for such suspicion. In Hadron may show universal truths, Nobel prize winner Frank Wilczek claims, "We know that the universe today contains . . . . so-called dark matter". Poppycock.

OPINION: There's an easy way for TVNZ to cut $5 million from its news budget (March 18), and that's for it to concentrate on reporting the news, instead of crossing live to the scene to interview someone who just happened to be walking past at the time, or someone still traumatised because they were materially affected.

OPINION: The Waihopai Three have successfully argued their "greater good" justification for breaking the law. I believe this is also known as "the end justifies the means". Is this not the same argument used by former United President George W Bush and former British prime minister Tony Blair for their interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq? So the Waihopai Three have actually argued that Messrs Bush and Blair are not only justified in what they have done, but are moral leaders of our society.

OPINION: I write in response to the not-guilty verdict for three blatant trespassers. It is over-the-top political correctness. Are we too sad a country to talk of what our fathers and grandfathers fought for - the right to free speech, but not the right to break the law?

OPINION: NZEI is not flatly rejecting the introduction of national standards as you state. Instead, it is taking a rational and measured approach by calling for the standards to be trialled. That call is backed by education academics and growing numbers of schools, parents and members of the public.

OPINION: It's highly frustrating to read that a shortage of physios might have been linked to a patient's death. Many physios from overseas would love to work here, but the rules won't let them continue in the profession they love. I am a British-qualified "highly specialist" physiotherapist in women's health.

OPINION: Having a keen interest in railways, I draw to your attention a misuse of railway terminology in recent years. The most recent example was in a headline that referred to 12 freight train carriages having been derailed (March 12).

OPINION: I refer to Women prevented from taking part in men's health conference. Women have been excluding men from their get- togethers for 30 years, with the excuse that including men would be unfriendly to women.

OPINION: Kirk biographer Margaret Hayward writes of myths about former prime minister Norman Kirk's death. But he was distrustful of doctors, and reluctant to seek proper medical help, according to Gerald Hensley in Final Approaches.

OPINION: We welcome your support for free off-peak public transport. Yes, it's a good scheme and older people are using it well to visit friends and family, for shopping and medical appointments, and reconnecting with their communities.

OPINION: Perhaps Graham Howell (Letters, March 16) considers it acceptable to raise the minimum "main welfare" payments to the equivalent of $15 an hour (presumably for a 40-hour week). But I'm certain he would also consider the consequential rise in the annual tax take to cover this to be an outrage, never mind the rise in the number of beneficiaries this would produce, virtually overnight.

OPINION: A month's holiday in your wonderful country does not qualify me to comment on your education system. However, I couldn't help noticing the poor standard of English used on semi-official notices and display boards, such as those found at tourist sites.

OPINION: People shouldn't forget that the captain of the protest ship Ady Gil was trying to foul the rudder and propellers of a Japanese whaler, something that could conceivably have caused it to broach and even capsize.

OPINION: Len Bayliss (Letters, March 15) makes a case for raising NZ Superannuation based on the "shameful" statistics in the OECD publication, Pensions at a Glance 2009.

OPINION: Everyone who's been trapped on a flight with uncontrolled children will sympathise with Labour list MP Charles Chauvel and admire his restraint.

OPINION: It's a peculiarity of accounting systems that if one borrows money, promising to repay it over time with interest, that's recorded as a liability.