CONGRATULATIONS to the Bury Times for reaching your 150th anniversary this year.

I suppose I am one of the few who attended your 100th anniversary dinner when I was chairman of Bury and Radcliffe Constituency Labour Party.

A local newspaper is a necessary adjunct to a free democratic society. Through its articles, contributors and letters to the editor, the electorate are able to contribute to communal discussion of current and local affairs. It is oil to the social machine.

May you or your successors live to see your 200th anniversary.

JAMES B. MASON