Objectors to controversial new shipwreck laws will draft their own legislation in a bid to push changes through the House of Assembly.

Last week Government announced it would delay debate on the Historic Wrecks Act to allow more public consulation.

The legislation has pitted archaeologists against divers and even threatened a possible Government backbench revolt.

Yesterday Maritime Museum director Dr. Ed Harris, who is against the legislation, welcomed the delay.

"We will be meeting with the National Trust to put forward an alternative bill. We will take our deliberations from there and at some point make a presentation to the appropriate Ministry.'' But veteran diver Harry Cox said the present law was enough -- although if it was altered, tribunals should be added to settle disputes.

"The interests of sports divers, salvors, preservationists and the Crown must be balanced.'' It is expected that the legislation will be debated in the House when it reconvenes in May after the Easter break.

Dr. Harris added: "There is plenty of time to do what is necessary. If Government is going to take the opinions of the public into consideration, the bill will take longer to sort out and might not come back in May.'' According to Dr. Harris, the proposed legislation did not go as far as legislation drafted but never passed in 1989.

Dr. Harris, who is also a member of the Historic Wrecks Committee, believes the new legislation could tie Government up in expensive legal battles over the value of a wreck.

And he said the proposed bill could end up giving wrecks away -- protecting the person holding the licence to explore and not the wreck itself.

UBP MP Trevor Moniz also joined in the fray, saying Government should delay debate on the Bill, which was tabled a week before it was due to be debated.

Mr. Moniz, a member of the Maritime Museum's board of trustees, said there were "fundamental flaws'' in the legislation and the public had not been given time to debate it fully.

Last night Paul Leseur, chairman of the Museum's trustees, said he had spoken to Mr. Moniz and hoped to form a committee to study the legislation.

"We asked the Minister if he would hold it over to give my board a chance to review it before it went to the House.

"Now we will get a copy of it and I am hoping to set up a committee to work on it and make some recommendations to the Minister.'' Any new legislation will replace the 1959 Wreck and Salvage Act which was amended in the early 1960s, due to efforts by veteran diver Harry Cox who drafted the amendments.

Mr. Cox, who has dived for more than 40 years, said if legislation was to be amended it should include the need for tribunals.

"The present law governing historic wrecks as an amendment to the Wreck and Salvage Act is adequate,'' he said. "To make discovery and endeavour the object of critical or hostile regard will make a small Island community more vulnerable than it is.

"What we seek to achieve is the protection of historical shipwrecks for society as a whole as opposed to the more narrow concerns of groups,'' added Mr. Cox.

Finance Minister Grant Gibbons says the proposed legislation would increase protection for wrecks.

"This Bill does not give the wreck away and the fact that compensation is awarded means that people are more likely to declare a find,'' Dr. Gibbons recently said.

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