presentation of a petition to the Permanent Secretary of Labour by Bermudian musicians.

We think that visitors prefer entertainment which they associate with island vacations rather than bad imitations of what they can hear at home. Too often, we think, hotels opt for North American resort entertainment when visitors are expecting sunsets and palm trees.

The problems of entertainer employment arise because there is no easy or set answer with musicians. Success of musical ability rests with the listener and cannot be qualified for the purposes of an immigration form. Some very talented musicians, local and imported, draw an audience and some very talented musicians do not. Musical success is based as much or more on appeal as it is on talent. No-one can certify appeal. That is not Immigration or Bermuda, that is the way the entertainment industry works. It is tough everywhere.

It is impossible for Immigration to judge a musician's ability to attract and hold an audience in a pub or a restaurant and that is what employers care about. The employer's yardstick of a musician's ability is guest enjoyment and the cash register. If a musician, local or imported, does not keep a pub busy with a happy audience, then he can be as good as he likes but he is no good to the proprietors.

We think it is also fair to say that many local musicians have a local audience problem. The local audience itself is fragmented to the point that it is almost impossible to know what appeals. As an example, generally if local musicians draw visitors with "island'' music they do not draw locals and if they have appeal for locals, they are often not what visitors expect on vacation.

The employment situation is complicated because the bottom line for places of entertainment is the paying customer. The bottom line for Bermuda is a happy visitor. It is all very well for locals to insist that there should be no work permits for performing at pubs, restaurants and hotels between November and March and that Bermudians should get preference between April and October.

Preference between April and October is justified. This newspaper has maintained for years that visitors prefer local music to bad Las Vegas. It is, however, up to the musicians to give the visitors what they want. Local musicians should be given the chance to work but they have to create their own success in this market. There are Bermudian musicians who want to do only their "own thing'' and who insist on being employed simply because they are Bermudian. That is not fair to the licence holders nor is it fair to the listeners, visitors or local.

The result of insisting that Bermudians only be employed in pubs, restaurants and hotels from November to March will, we think, be decreased entertainment.

Employers will feel that in the slow visitor season they can do without entertainment because Bermudians will not turn out for locals. As a result, there will be little entertainment for visitors at a time when Bermuda is trying to build the off-season. That does not make sense.

Solutions are not easy because the public is hard to please. Bermuda has to remember the need to employ Bermudians. But, Bermuda is a tourist resort and tourist resorts must entertain their visitors and keep them happy.