According to statistics released yesterday, a total of 51,639 passengers took advantage of the service in September compared to 49,342 people during the same month last year.

The Somerset route saw a large increase in the number of passengers last month. More than 30,000 people used the service compared to 26,592 last year.

But the Paget/Warwick route reported a drop in numbers from the previous year.

In September, 1996, a total of 22,390 Bermudians and visitors took that ferry route. Last month, that number dropped to 21,175 or by 5.4 percent.

This was the first year for the summer east/west ferry which carried 2,441 passengers.

The Somerset service also sold the majority of monthly passes, with 16,107 or 53 percent while 6,914 or 33 percent were sold for the Paget/Warwick route.

Overall 23,021 monthly passes were sold, accounting for 45 percent of the ferry service fare.

EMPLOYERS RECEIVE REMINDER ON TAXES TAX Employers receive reminder on taxes Employers and those self-employed must pay taxes for September and the quarter ending September 30 by today.

The Tax Commissioner issued this reminder yesterday to those responsible for payroll and corporate services taxes which must be paid every quarter and the hotel occupancy tax which is due monthly.

Returns filed without payment or with part payment will be assessed at an additional tax or penalty of five percent of the unpaid tax.

For further information call the Tax Commissioner office, in the Government Administration Building on Parliament Street, at 297-7750 or 297-7751.

OUTCOME OF HEARING EXPECTED SOON UNS Outcome of hearing expected soon The result of an arbitration meeting to settle a dispute between Government and blue collar workers is set to be revealed this week.

Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess said that he expected the hearing's findings any day now.

He added: "They said it would take about two weeks to come up with a decision and that's almost up.'' The arbitration hearing was called after Government and manual workers hit a deadlock over this year's 2.98 percent pay award.

Ferry and garbage services were hit after workers from several Government departments, including Works and Engineering, Marine and Ports and Agriculture and Fisheries downed tools to attend the two-day hearing in Hamilton.

The hearing -- whose results will be binding on Government and the BIU -- was set up to consider how to pay the increases.

Government wants to pay the increase across the board to all workers. But the BIU want a variable rate, with more going to the lowest-paid workers and less to those on higher pay scales.

CHANCE TO MEET ERWIN ADDERLEY PTL Chance to meet Erwin Adderley United Bermuda Party members in Pembroke West will tomorrow get a chance to meet the unopposed UBP by-election candidate Erwin Adderley.

Pembroke West branch chairman Joyce Hall said former Government director of planning Mr. Adderley would speak at a meeting in Admiralty House, Spanish Point, tonight.

She added the general membership meeting, scheduled to start at 8 p.m., would be "the first time members will have the opportunity to hear Erwin Adderley speak.'' Mrs. Hall added that it was now too late for anyone else to come forward and force a primary in the seat, vacated at the end of last month by former Youth and Sport Minister David Dyer.

She explained that for a primary to be valid for the November 6 by-election date, it would have had to have been held by October 8.