Sunday gone, a young 16-year-old girl was injured in a bike accident on Parson's Lane. Now I know the site and also know that there are no signs that mention sharp turn up ahead near the hill leading up to it. This is a safety hazard and should be looked into so that the same doesn't happen to others on this road.

KIERON SMITH Pembroke East Constitutional concerns The following letter was sent to John White, head of the Overseas Territories Department at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and copied to The Royal Gazette.

Dear Sir, Re: Bermuda Constitutional Amendments.

Following on my letter dated 3rd April, 2001 addressed to you at Government House, Bermuda, and my appearance before your colleagues on that day I write again to stress the strong feelings I and many of my fellow Bermudians have about the form of your proposed Order in Council.

The main fault which the PLP Government rightly wishes to correct in the existing franchise arrangements is that votes in large constituencies have less value than those in small constituencies. There is also merit in their proposed establishing of single- member constituencies and reducing the number of members in the elected House. Other than correcting these three shortcomings our existing arrangements are satisfactory and should remain as they are. The two serious errors in the PLP Government proposals are first that they wish to scrap the parish boundaries for electoral purposes and secondly that they have not properly addressed the issue of what to put in their place. It is unacceptable to say that the foreseeable problems which would be caused by their proposal can be solved by the Constituency Boundaries Commission.

When the Bermuda Company was incorporated on 29th June 1615 one of the first things the directors did was send Richard Norwood here to survey the Island, the main purpose being a purely commercial one of making the land available for ownership and development and marketable. Within a few years he completed a remarkably accurate survey in which Bermuda was divided into nine approximately equal areas called tribes or parishes, each of which was named after one of the principle shareholders.

As Bermuda became more populated these parishes came to serve many ecclesiastical and civil purposes only one of which was to become the basis of our democratic electoral system. If the parishes were to cease to serve this purpose it would be necessary to establish a similar series of divisions and it is not possible to substitute one which is better than the one now in place.

Is is important that the Constitution specify not only the number of constituenies but also where their boundaries are to be within a framework which leaves sufficient flexibility to allow for population changes. These objectives can be achieved within the existing parish boundaries. Internally each parish is subdivided into postal zones and all registered voters have addresses which would make delineating single-member constituencies within each parish a task which the Constituency Boundaries Commission could discharge.

You will recall that in my above-mentioned letter I stated the appropriate number of members of the elected House should be 36 instead of 40 and I take the liberty of repeating how this could be achieved as follows: St. George's -- 3,211 voters -- 3 Hamilton -- 3,100 voters -- 3 Smith's -- 3,145 voters -- 3 Devonshire -- 4,298 voters -- 4 Pembroke -- 6,868 voters -- 7 Paget -- 2,528 voters -- 3 Warwick -- 5,054 voters -- 5 Southampton -- 3,406 voters -- 3 Sandys -- 4,529 voters -- 5 Total 36,139 -- 36 A voting system based on proportional representation would better safeguard the rights of the white minority and could be introduced by either; (a) creating ten new constituencies being as set out above except that Pembroke should be divided into two constituencies as follows: Pembroke East -- 3,367 voters -- 3 Pembroke West -- 3,501 voters -- 4 or (b) creating five multi-member constituencies as follows: St. George's and Hamilton -- 6,311 voters -- 6 Smith's and Devonshire -- 7,443 voters -- 7 Pembroke -- 6,868 voters -- 7 Paget and Warwick -- 7,582 voters -- 8 Southampton and Sandys -- 7,935 voters -- 8 Total 36,139 -- 36 Proportional representation is a more democratic voting system than first past the post and in the light of the history of various countries large and small where there is a large black majority and small white minority it is desirable to impose such a system in order to enhance the chances of the minority group having some representation.

The idea of a referendum to resolve these issues has little appeal because such questions as retaining the parish boundaries and fixing the number of members in the elected House are not suitable for solution in a referendum.

Likewise, I am not keen on a constitutional conference because it is likely to resolve itself into an adversarial confrontation between Government and Opposition representatives with each side becoming more entrenched in its views and your office being limited to supporting one side or the other with an understandable inclination to support the Government.

The PLP Government wrongly believes that the parish boundaries are the result of white political gerrymandering which causes them to want to sweep away the entire system. They then wish new arrangements substituted by a body they say is impartial but which in practice the Government will control. No opposition will be able to organise and democracy will cease to exist. The weakness in the UBP Opposition position is that they are unable to speak with one voice.

An ombudsman is not desirable in a small place like Bermuda and the danger of such a Civil Servant using his powers to interfere in a detrimental way in the operations of all Government Departments is real. In any event if the Government is determined to create such an office it should be done by the Legislature and not in the Constitution.

The best chance for your Office making an Order in Council which will be in the best interests of the future peace and prosperity of Bermuda is for your Office to compromise the PLP Government proposals and the UBP Opposition proposals and make an Order in terms which will implement the provisions recommended in this letter.

WILLIAM M. COX Hester is putrid April 19, 2001 Dear Sir, You were bold enough to print Hester's untruths, let me see if you are honest enough to print this! If the objective of Hester's remarks about me in your newspaper of Thursday, April 19, 2001, were designed to annoy me, then he, she or it has succeeded.

Her remarks are symptomatic of the mis-information which the media can spread while hiding behind the so-called "freedom of the press''.

For Hester to imply that I do not know that the city of "CLEVELAND'' is spelled differently to my name, "CLEVELYN'' is snide, malicious and spiteful.

I certainly did not tell any "friend'' of Hester that my name is spelled just like the city of CLEVELAND. No one has asked me how to spell my Christian name recently or in the past 15 years. I normally say to people "my name is CLEVELYN, like CLEVELAND, OHIO, but with an LYN'' I can only conclude that such an untruth was designed to take a pot shot at the Post Office.

There is a story about the Emperor's New Clothes. Well, from my viewpoint, Hester has been unclothed and what has been exposed can only be termed as putrid.

CLEVELYN (NOT CLEVELAND) CRICHLOW City of Hamilton Why 40 cents more? April 12, 2001 Dear Sir, Please allow me to state my complaint with the Bermuda Telephone Company. I received my monthly telephone bill and I was shocked to see a charge of 60 cents for directory assistance. I have a telephone directory, but on this occasion I could not find a listing for a new restaurant in Flatts. Therefore I had to call directory assistance. It's not the 60 cents, it's the principle, as one can go to a pay phone and pay 20 cents for the same information why 40 cents more? UNHAPPY SUBSCRIBER Southampton Politics going nowhere March 28, 2001 Dear Sir, In Bermuda there is a view that political leaders, regardless of party affiliations, have failed to demonstrate the vision and capability to resurrect Bermuda's society from a quagmire of despair, except for the late L.F. Wade. We have never had a leader who could apply intellectual rigour and reconciling Bermuda's competing interests. What we have had in Bermuda are charismatic leaders who were utterly disastrous and has left Bermuda struggling with the legacy of their personal excesses. There is no shortage of talent in Bermuda, yet as a country we appear unable to focus on our talent.

There is a widely held view that serious deficits in education exist, yet, political leaders seem unable or unwilling to agree on solutions that would reverse the downward slide.

In Bermuda, politics, as usual, is unsustainable as we face an onslaught of drugs, crime, violence, corruption and renewed racism., It is time to re-build civility in public discourse and integrity, not the pursuit of private ambition.

In Bermuda political tribalism is an ugly fact that robs the country of the energy it needs to overcome political divisiveness.

RAYMOND RUSSELL Pembroke