disclosed that she was "distressed and deeply offended'' by recent comments by a Shadow Minister.

Helle Patterson was speaking out after Shadow Education Minister Tim Smith questioned the unusually small number of Government Scholarship recipients this year.

In a letter to The Royal Gazette Mrs. Patterson said Mr. Smith had used "cheap tactics'' when he attacked the methods in which students were selected for such awards.

Mrs. Patterson defended the actions of the committee, saying she was "absolutely certain that we selected the best candidates''.

Mr. Smith had said he was worried students may not have been given an adequate amount of time to get their grades into the Education Department for the end of June deadline.

He recommended that the deadline should be extended and that the application form made easier for students to understand.

But Mrs. Patterson said the committee's procedures were in line with the Scholarship Act and that unless Parliament made amendments to it, the committee was powerless to do anything.

"I myself was deeply distressed that we could not award the remaining scholarships without arbitrarily contravening the Scholarship Act and thereby opening us to the very accusations Mr. Smith has seen fit to direct at us,'' she said.

Mrs. Patterson also said the Scholarship recipients were those people "whose transcripts showed their high academic standing and who demonstrated themselves in the interview to be fine representatives of Bermuda''.

She explained that the lack of interviewees was down to the simple fact that no-one else produced paperwork of high enough standards.

But Mrs. Patterson made it clear that "no needy applicant was entirely bereft'' because the committee ensured that they were able to obtain Further Education Awards.

USE TRASH BARRELS GVT Use trash barrels The Parks Department is urging everyone to use the trash barrels provided at Shelly Bay.

A spokesman for the department said: "A crew from the Department of Parks had to go out to Shelly Bay Park for the second time (in a week) to clean up trash which has been left strewn around, mainly in the playground area.'' Trash barrels are put out at sites like Shelly Bay Park so the public can leave these areas in the same clean condition that they find them in, the spokesman pointed out.

"We urge people to use these trash barrels, and we would especially like to urge adults who accompany groups of children to the park to set a good example by seeing that trash is disposed of properly.''