valuable archaeological site at Hog Bay Level -- and the demolition of the Ridgeway building in Pembroke to make way for the new Berkeley Institute are timely.

He joins concerned Bermudian organisations such as the Bermuda Maritime Museum and the Bermuda National Trust in warning against the destruction of Bermuda's heritage.

The loss of these two properties is especially poignant because they are both fine examples of the skilled labour, often carried out by slaves, which went into their construction.

Slave history, in spite of the efforts of historians in the last 30 years and valuable additions to our knowledge such as Mary Prince's narrative, remains a still mysterious part of Bermuda's heritage.

Because slaves did not form part of the "official history'' of Bermuda, very often details on how slaves lived does not exist, at least in written form.

Instead, as Dr. Jarvis notes, the lives of slaves and their descendants after Emancipation can often only be reconstructed through digging (literally) through their homes and their foundations to get some sense of their daily routine and how they lived.

Examples of the skilled work that black Bermudians carried out as masons, carpenters and in other trades enriches all Bermudians' sense of history and great care needs to be taken before these repositories of the Island's history are destroyed.

This is not to say that every single old home or architectural site can be preserved. But it should be avoided where possible and when it is impossible, an accurate record of the building and its contents -- including archaeological findings should be kept.

The demolition of Hill House, as Maritime Museum director Dr. Edward Harris points out today, is especially strange because the site is located in a Government park and the archaeological survey was commissioned by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Up to now, The Royal Gazette has not been able to get an answer from the Ministry of the Environment on how the site was allowed to be destroyed.

This is a situation where someone needs to be held accountable, if only to stop it from happening again.

Government took an enormous step forward when it began to list buildings of historic or architectural importance. The time has come to consider listing buildings, or sites, of archaeological importance as well.

HOTEL PLANS EDT Hotel plans The fact that two of the Island's major hotels are preparing to spend more money on their properties appears to be an endorsement of Government's Hotel Concessions Act.

The legislation, which passed the House of Assembly before Cup Match, gives hotels tax concessions for improvements to their properties and if that means that Bermuda will have modern hotel properties in the future, then that is good news and Tourism Minister David Allen deserves credit.

But Government has yet to make clear how much the scheme could cost the taxpayer in the future, although it could be argued that this is money which would not have been spent without the programme.

But Government should also consider requiring hotels to run more and better training programmes for their staff as a quid pro quo for the concessions, because Bermuda needs to provide top service at all its properties if it is to make a success of tourism again.

And this question also has to be asked: Will the tax breaks lead to stable or even lower room rates which will make the Island competitive once again?