of the people, is to protect Bermuda. The protection of Bermuda's environment is of primary importance, yet we have a system where the Minister of the Environment can do as he pleases no matter what. The Country has already suffered from "acting ministers'' being put in place to approve controversial projects to avoid embarrassing the substantive minister. The Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, which is fast turning into a white elephant, was approved that way and so was that highly controversial Harbour Road house.

Now Environment Minister John Irving Pearman has taken a step which the Bermuda National Trust has called "peculiar'' but we prefer to call bizarre.

Mr. Pearman has lifted zoning restrictions on land at Vesey Street so that the Development Applications Board can consider a massive extension to the Equestrian Centre.

The land is zoned Woodland Reserve and Open Space. That kind of restrictive zoning is generally thought to be virtually untouchable. Apparently that is not so, Mr. Pearman can do as he pleases. That means that no protected area in Bermuda is safe and that should cause national alarm.

Mr. Pearman has used the weakest argument to justify the step by saying that Bermuda has received ten percent of its land mass back from the United States.

That's an ill-informed and silly argument because there is no parallel between the Base lands and Woodland Reserve at Vesey Street. Much of the land we received back from the United States is already developed or desecrated or, as is the case with Morgan's Point, is about to be developed. Perhaps Mr. Pearman considers the Kindley Field air strip open space.

Mr. Pearman is also reported as saying that if he had not lifted the zoning order the Development Applications Board would have been unable to look at the Equestrian Federation's plans and the plans would have been turned down because the area was zoned Woodland Reserve and Open Space.

That is precisely the point of restrictive zoning, to stop people making plans for protected areas. It is preposterous that the Equestrian Federation engaged in such plans for Woodland Reserve land and outrageous that they were not simply told that they had no chance of developing Woodland Reserve and Open Space. That should have been the beginning and the end of the whole matter.

Clearly Bermuda has an Environment Minister who does not understand environmental concerns. He seems to have no commitment to the natural environment and a careless approach to Bermuda. Premier Pamela Gordon is said to be considering a Cabinet shuffle. She should start with Mr. Pearman because he is clearly unsuited to his ministry.

He has acted on submissions from a small special interest group at the expense of Bermuda as a whole and given Bermudians another reason to distrust this Government.