There will always be mug punters (''Fresh proof it's easier to pick a sucker than a winner'', July 23, p19), none more so than on improvements to the internal combustion engine. There have been magnets and stomising grids in the induction system, tablets in the petrol, water as a fuel additive, lubricant modifiers (molybdenum disulphide). The latest is a generator that provides energy to electrolyse water into hydrogen and oxygen which is then added to the fuel. Perpetual motion lives again.

Strangely enough, some arrangements to feed water into internal combustion engines have succeeded. Heavy bomber engines in World War II had water-methanol injection for take-off, a short-term combustion modifier and power boost to get more bombs into the air. Efficiency was not a factor. Eighteen- and 21-inch torpedoes with basically a compressed air motor and a kerosene burner stage overcame the formation of ice as the air cooled adiabatically as it expanded through the motor. A small injection of water was found to improve this unique combustion cycle and the deadly projectiles were know as ''steam torpedoes''. The motors were designed to run for a few minutes only.

As the design of motor cars moves to hybrids and electrical propulsion, look out for a new generation of shonky, useless, even dangerous widgets offered to the gullible public.

Colin P. Glover, Canberra City

Charity at risk

The public has every right to be very suspicious of the Rudd Government's taxation review of charities and other non-government organisations. The review committee claims it is necessary because the non-profit sector forms a ''huge'' part of the Australian economy.

A taxation review by the Howard government on this stated economic basis would have been universally condemned by Labor and its media supporters as another example of a ''heartless'' government that had placed economic management above the wellbeing of a big sector of Australia's poor and disadvantaged citizens who depend increasingly on charities and churches.

Of great comfort to the needy sector is the fact there are many organisations to which they can apply for financial help in these desperate times. Having a choice of organisations everywhere in the states and territories enables swift and appropriate help to be provided, according to individual circumstances.

Another wonderful aspect of the current plethora of organisations is that they are overwhelmingly staffed by people who are sensitive to the needs of the applicants and very often provide voluntary assistance far beyond their bureaucratic duties.

Their personal non-profit-making ethos is frowned upon by the profit-making mandarins of the Australian business world.

However, it is an ominous sign when the chief executive of the Government-funded Centre for Social Impact, Peter Shergold, claims there are ''too many'' such non-profit organisations receiving Government grants with allegedly non-transparent accounting practices that need to be brought under a single bureaucratic regulation umbrella for taxation purposes.

This new Rudd Government review, with its focus on tax regulation, rather than simply looking at ways to deliver more desperately required assistance to those in need, will inevitably cause a reduction of the number of non-profit and church organisations, shrinkage of staff, a reduction of services for needy Australians and an increasing focus on tax-driven economic accountability, rather than people welfare.

The public has learned through bitter experience that government taxation reviews in the name of economic efficiency and service delivery are most often nothing more than a smokescreen for tax grabs that lead to increasingly heartless bureaucratic Big Brother control.

One sure bet is that the end result of this review will be to the long-term detriment of Australia's needy citizens.

It will fill heartless government coffers while the needy will go hungry.

John Bell, Lyneham