If you undermine or reject one part of the Basic Law, you put at risk even those parts you support.

The only effective way to guard against manipulation of the election is to initiate, even at this late hour, a constructive debate about the structure of the nominating committee and how it will go about its work.

It is unfortunate that the rancorous discussion of public nomination has created an atmosphere in which rational debate and reasonable compromise will be difficult. But it is not too late to try.

David Hall, Mid-Levels

I refer to the report ("Radicals 'cost city key Apec meeting'", March 8). The rhetoric against the Occupy Central movement is now bordering on the paranoid.

Hong Kong and mainland officials should understand that the more they attack this movement, the stronger it will become.

Activism behaves like our muscles. The more resistance confronted, the more power realised. Occupy Central is a naive idea and, left to its own devices, it would have died on the vine.

However, all these strident official, establishment and academic voices are simply summoning up more support for a mass protest.

Owing to the constraints placed upon families by the one-child policy, some parents on the mainland are abandoning their children.

They face fines if they have a second child. Some couples will opt for an abortion, but others choose to abandon the children in various locations such as parks and toilets.

In order to deal with this problem, the government has established baby safety zones [or baby hatches] in different provinces. The aim is to give these infants a better chance of survival.

I can see some problems connected with these zones.

One problem that I see is that it encourages more couples to abandon their children [which is illegal].

It makes it easier for them to give up the responsibilities they have for the child and probably lessens the feeling of guilt they should have.

I also wonder what psychological effect it will have on these youngsters as they grow older, knowing their were abandoned. Will they grow up thinking that when they have a family they could do the same thing, if necessary.

This scheme will also place a heavy financial burden on central and regional governments, Some local authorities may struggle to provide the welfare that is required.

Finally, I am worried that these hatches could be exploited by those involved in human trafficking.

There are no surveillance cameras, and I am concerned that human traffickers could use this to their advantage and take some of these children. And, without the cameras, it will be difficult to track down these criminals.

Before it was recognised that Hong Kong had a falling birth rate, there was little support for small-class teaching.

However, now it is the subject of a heated debate. The government wants to reduce the number of classes in schools to cope with a substantial projected drop in the number of Form One students. Educationists want the number to stay the same, but with fewer pupils.

They argue that the government has sufficient resources to go ahead with this initiative and improve the quality of the education provided to children in Hong Kong.

In essence, the smaller the class size, the more intense the interaction between students and teachers. Teachers can spend more time with each student and get more feedback.

However, officials will point to the additional cost.

For example, the rooms in school buildings were designed for large classes and therefore they are too large for smaller-scale teaching. Officials have traditionally opposed the idea and when he was education secretary, Michael Suen Ming-yeung said he had no short-term plans for its introduction. Nor does the proposal appear to have enjoyed a great deal of public support as people fail to see the advantages it brings.

Besides, in many countries, a small class would be considered to be around 10 students. However, if the system was implemented here, we would be talking about around 24 students and some critics would question whether a class of that size would be all that much better than the status quo.

Officials would also argue that money would have to spent retraining teachers as the method of teaching smaller classes is different.

I think this should be seen as a long-term strategy. It is very difficult for teachers and students to change their working and learning environment in a short period of time.

I do think it is a feasible system to adopt in Hong Kong. But, as I said, the government should see it as a long-term strategy.

It should plan to introduce small-class teaching in Hong Kong schools over a number of years. Not only would this lead to an improved learning environment for children, it would also reduce the risk of teachers being laid off.

If a well-planned and comprehensive proposal was put forward by the Education Bureau, I think it could gain public support.

I welcome the decision in the budget to add HK$4 to a pack of 20 cigarettes.

I appreciate that rises in earlier budgets were no longer effective because of inflation, although I do think that the relatively high duty in Hong Kong has led to more people making the effort to quit smoking.

Some smokers fail to appreciate the health implications of what they are doing.

The tax rise is an attempt by officials to get them to think more carefully about stopping.

Critics of the tax hike have said it was not high enough. However, consider the fact that many people smoke more than one pack a day. They will feel the hike of HK$4 a packet.