six months after Government announced amid much pressure from city merchants that it would activate its option to seek a fifth ship.

"We believe six ships is where it's at,'' Shadow Tourism Minister Mr. David Allen said on Friday night in the House of Assembly.

But Tourism Minister the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge was staunchly against the idea.

And a local shipping agent warned a sixth regular-calling liner might take away business from the other liners sailing to Bermuda weekly.

Meyer Agencies president the Wor. Henry Hayward also said a sixth ship might have to resort to rate-cutting to get business, especially if it was a weekend caller.

In any event, he said, the option for a sixth ship could not be exercised until 1996 due to contractual agreements.

Mr. Allen said the Progressive Labour Party believed a sixth ship could easily be accommodated in Bermuda on weekends, especially at the "under-utilised'' Dockyard berth.

He stressed though, the PLP was not in favour of any more twin-port callers or having two ships in port at the same time.

Mr. Woolridge, however, said the Island could not possibly handle a sixth regular caller.

"We have to cut our material according to our cloth,'' he told MPs. There would not be enough tender services or dock space in the event of bad weather and transport services would be stretched to capacity, he said.

Mr. Woolridge, also during his Throne Speech address, said that next month he would announce the name of the fifth cruise ship, which would call at St.

George's starting in 1994.

Mr. Allen said yesterday the PLP had been pushing for six cruise ships for a long time.

He said he was glad Government had finally agreed, in May, to activate its option to host a fifth weekly ship.

Pressure from the business community and the Opposition had been building since 1990 when the four-ship policy fell short of its minimum 120,000-visitor target.

Mr. Allen claimed that in a 1985 interview with the media he had said allowing a 10-year cruise line contract was a mistake because the Island's economic situation could change at any time.

"As you well know, it did,'' he said. "And we were left in a strait-jacket.'' He noted that a weekend-calling liner would have to leave mid-week instead of the more popular weekend departure. But, he said, a way to entice lines to come on the weekend would be to lower wharfage fees and head tax on weekends.

He added the taxpayer had spent more than $2 million on the new berth at Dockyard, and it was only being used three and half days a week.