I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those generous people who have kindly brought bibles to us in response to my letter which appeared on Monday, April 30 appealing for used bibles for a missionary in Africa to distribute to his flock.

To date we have three large cartons ready to go.

If there are any other folks who had planned to donate but have not got around to bringing their gifts to us yet, we shall be happy to continue to receive bibles until Tuesday, May 15, after which date we shall seal up the boxes and get them shipped out.

Used and spare bibles can be delivered to Rehoboth, 148 South Road, Paget opposite Size Wise and Just Roses, near the South Road roundabout. Please deliver during daytime, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., to BEC office, cedar door, under the buttery.

Once again my grateful thanks, on behalf the recipients in Gabon, Africa, and God bless you all.

MARGARET FORSTER Paget A construction solution May 8, 2001 Dear Sir, I think it is time to write a letter to the editor regarding the payment of construction firms for hiring Bermudians. What next? First of all I must say that I am surprised that this is an avenue that the PLP party has sought to take, after all I believe that their platform was in support of the "people''. Well the "people'', if anyone, should be benefitting from Bermudianisation rather than the establishment. And who is to say that the funds will actually be used for the training purposes as they say they will. Look at how many companies own Employment Tax, Social Insurance and Health insurance that they withhold from their employee's pay.

There are so many down sides to this issue that I won't even go into them, but rather offer a potential solution. It's simple and it's called a moratorium.

Simply impose a moratorium on construction labourers except under extenuating circumstances. Further, use some of that $250,000 to set up a paid board of construction experts as Government interviewers within the Department of Immigration and have all, yes all, resumes that would be used to hire expatriate workers in the construction field forwarded to that board, not to the construction company so that they can weed out the ones that would not qualify. The board could then evaluate the requirements of the construction firm, and review the resumes and select the best possible applicant for the position.

Also, if another firm decided to apply for an expatriate worker in that same field, the board would already have a file with qualified Bermudians from which to choose with the residue of applications for the previous position, thus alleviating the need to re-advertise etc. They'd simply contact the next best person for the job and make them the offer, and on, and on.

Just a suggestion.

ANTOINETTE ZUILL (Wife, sister and mother of Bermudian construction workers) Southampton A Bermudian company May 8, 2001 Dear Sir, I am writing to address several issues that have been stated in the Press recently concerning the construction industry and the major companies in the industry of which we are one.

Before I begin, I must state that I am not in a position to comment about any other general contractor, their ownership or how they conduct their business.

What I am able to do is to dispel many of the general comments made as they relate to BCM McAlpine.

We are not a foreign dominated company from an ownership standpoint. The roots of BCM McAlpine go back to 1926 with G.H. Burland & Co. and the BCM companies that followed adapted to suit the ever changing business conditions. Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd. is a minority shareholder in our business as allowed under Bermuda law. In the mid 1990s, Sir Robert McAlpine were invited to become part of our company to help us compete in the current economic climate and to provide the type and quality of product demanded by Bermuda's growing international business sector. McAlpine's conservative, long term outlook, together with strong "island'' experience, and commitment to training were important to us.

We are not foreign dominated from a management standpoint. We operate our company under a divisional structure. Of our five principle divisions, four are headed by Bermudians. It is true that many of our senior project management staff are expatriate. They are either professionally qualified engineers or quantity surveyors. To undertake major construction we need qualified and experienced staff. There are simply not enough qualified Bermudians to fill these positions. We are trying to improve this position and in the last two years we have hired three Bermudian graduates who are training in these disciplines. With our association with McAlpine, we are able to bring in highly qualified and experienced staff on a secondment basis when needed for specific projects. These employees help train our local staff. When the projects are finished they typically return to McAlpine, their long term employer.

Nor are we foreign dominated from an operative standpoint. Much has been said about the qualities of Bermudian tradesmen and site based supervisory staff.

We currently have a workforce of 152. Of these only 20 are non-Bermudian, or not spouses of a Bermudian, and the majority of those are senior project management staff. We only have five non-Bermudians in a non supervisory role.

We are currently working on seven significant projects and all of them has at least one Bermudian in a supervisory role. Of those seven jobs, on five of them the senior site field superintendent or foreman is Bermudian. In addition we have a Bermudian working for McAlpine who is due to re-join us in June as a project manager after two years work experience in the UK.

There are times when employing overseas tradesmen is inevitable in the Bermuda market place, simply through lack of available resources. The notion that we would prefer to employ foreign tradesmen is nonsense. It is expensive, time consuming and very difficult to get people here as quickly as they are needed.

It is unreasonable to expect the same levels of productivity from Bermudian tradesmen as those from the bigger countries.

With the exception of masonry (blockwork and plastering), there simply is not enough consistent work here to let those levels of productivity develop. A Canadian carpenter might do nothing but formwork as there is enough work in Canada to do this 52 weeks a year. In Bermuda a carpenter will be able to do formwork, hang doors, do some finish work, etc. They have to have this range of skills to work year round. Bermudian tradesmen therefore generally have a broader range of skills that can lead to lower productivity in a given area.

However, the quality of work produced by a properly trained tradesmen in Bermuda is often better than from elsewhere. The construction industry has not produced as many qualified tradesmen as it perhaps should have over the last 20 years.

Many potential candidates have been drawn toward international business and, with full employment, there has been less perceived need by the workforce to learn trades. This must change for the long term health of the local industry.

We continue to actively support the programmes at The Bermuda College and, over more than 50 years, have consistently been the leader in training Bermudians in the building trades. Furthermore, we are able to use our association with McAlpine to assist with technical training. We have a Bermudian working for McAlpine in the UK just completing the first year of a three year, day release, carpentry apprenticeship. We are currently in the process of selecting a further candidate to start the same course in September this year.

BCM McAlpine is very much a Bermuda company. We have the long term health of Bermuda very much in focus, for it is only in a healthy Bermuda that we will thrive. We need to provide the same quality of service that our clients can find anywhere in the world and we are able to do this through a combination of local and overseas expertise. We recognise that for the long term health of Bermuda, and particularly the construction industry, the level of skills in Bermuda needs to be raised and we are spending significantly to help achieve this. The Government should be strongly supporting companies like ours and discouraging overseas companies, with no real long term interest in helping Bermuda or Bermudians, from setting up here. Anything Government does, or other businesses do, to help promote the training and education of Bermudians in our industry, and indeed all local industries, is in the long term benefit of all of Bermuda and will be fully supported by ourselves.

ALAN E. BURLAND President