that means that if they do not pay at the end of their time, a warrant has to be issued, someone has to chase them, they cannot be found and the fines remain unpaid. The unpaid fines amount to millions of dollars. This is not intended as criticism of today's magistrates because there is a long history of the Lower Courts granting such time. But it seems to us that it is time to stop and to change the procedure.

A very similar thing happens with child support and this newspaper receives repeated letters to the Editor from mothers who want their money yet are frustrated by the inability of the system to collect that money.

What this means is that we have a mess in the court system which is costing Government money both in lost revenue and in the high cost of collecting the money and which is frustrating mothers and impacting on the lives of far too many of Bermuda's children.

The problem is two-fold. First, the magistrates continue to give people time to pay when it is clear that people who do not pay cause chaos in the system and then a weak and understaffed collections system which can't collect the backlog which daily has more and more collections added.

It is true that an examination of the whole system was undertaken but, as often happens, that was accepted as a solution without anything much actually happening.

It seems to us that magistrates should be more careful in granting time because there is evidence that if no time is granted then friends and relatives do show up with the money to prevent people being held in jail.

There should be a concerted effort to collect the backlog, let's say a task force working hard for a short time to get the huge amounts down to a sensible level. Once that was achieved, it should be possible to make future collections in a timely manner.

Right now the uncollected sums are obscene in a small country like Bermuda and the system is clearly not working in any satisfactory way. Not paying fines and child support is, of course, contempt of court which can be viewed very seriously.

We have already seen extensive publicity of the huge mess created by parking fines but that is only a small part of the problem. A social problem is created by "deadbeat dads'' which is unacceptable in a Country which wants to care for and educate its children.

The secondary problem is those who break the law and then go to court asking for time to pay with very little intention of ever paying the fine. Therefore the sentence can amount to nothing or, at best, to a threat. That is too often seen as "getting away with it'' and does little to deter future offences.

That has to be a source of annoyance and a bad example for people who do pay their fines when they are imposed.