Poor black families were not, contrary to popular belief, cheated out of their homes in Tuckers Town to make way for wealthy tourist developments, lawyer Peter Smith said yesterday.

He said his father, A.C. Smith, was the secretary of the Bermuda Development Company, which bought the land in the 1920's, and he would not have allowed the families to be swindled.

After the families were moved out, the area was used to build the Marriott Hotel and the Mid-Ocean Club.

Mr. Smith, a consultant with Cox, Hallett, Wilkinson, told Hamilton Rotary Club that the families were paid a fair price for their land.

The company also paid "plenty" for land to develop the railway system as well, he added.

"People suggest Tuckers Town was acquired for a pittance, but that isn't true," he told the Rotary meeting in Tuscany Restaurant.

"They were paid plenty according to the values of land at that time. All I can tell you is that the chair of the committee which fixed the prices was (Sir Reginald) Appleby.

"My father was the secretary and Appleby was a man of tremendous integrity, and I can't believe he would allow anyone to be cheated. That's the kind of man he was.

"I can't imagine my father, who became the Chief Justice of Sierra Leone, would have allowed anything underhand to take place.

"I just don't believe the stories that it was sold for a pittance. I can't believe these men would have allowed it to happen."

Mr. Smith, a former president of Hamilton Rotary Club, was speaking on the growth of the law in Bermuda.

He said the Island's law firms had helped transform Bermuda from a rural economy with a little tourism into a sophisticated international business centre.

The first United Bermuda Party government began upgrading the Companies Act in the 1960's but this was not completed until the 1980's and it had been kept up to date since then.

When he came back to Bermuda after the war, all that was needed in a legal practice was a typewriter, a desk, and a waiting room, he said.

"There was no air conditioning and a gust of wind from the South Shore could blow your papers all over the place.

"It is just amazing the way the economy has grown from a small agricultural economy to a highly sophisticated international business centre and the legal system has contributed to that greatly, along with the accountants and the bankers."