becoming evident that many very charitable businesses and a number of equally charitable individuals are beginning to feel put-upon. Fund campaigners have gone to the same well too often.

It is fair to say that whenever there is a very large fund campaign in progress other charities suffer because the money tends to go to the new campaign. We have recently had perhaps the largest campaign ever in Bermuda to finance the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. The original cost estimates were eight to ten million dollars and they rose to over 20 million and while a great deal of that came very generously from Fidelity's Mr. Ned Johnson, a great deal also came out of Bermuda's charity funds. Whether or not BUEI was worth it remains to be seen but that kind of cost overrun on a Government project would have caused a public outcry.

Both of Bermuda's banks are very generous to all kinds of public causes as are any number of international companies and the international rich who live in Bermuda. They do, in fact, pay taxes in the form of huge gifts to Bermuda's institutions. They often make these gifts with very little recognition and without a great deal of public thanks. It is fair to say that without the international contributions Bermuda's large fund campaigns would not succeed.

Bermudians generally feel that where charity funds are concerned the gross and the net should be very close to one and the same. Therefore we think that charities going over and over again to the same sources should be very careful with the funds they collect. When you see charities doing extensive mailings of expensive and highly coloured brochures, beware their costs are high.

We think there have been some signs lately that the costs of staging charity fund raising events have been excessive compared to the money raised. We see large fund raising costs as depleting money which could be well used by other charities.

It seems to use that events which rely on overseas celebrity participation tend to have costs which exceed the returns. While the returns are good for the recipients and sometimes sound good to people who are unaware of the costs, the costs tend to come out of the pockets of other charities. The best fund raising is done by volunteers for a cost which is a small fraction of the proceeds. That means that the money goes where it should go.