attention to the environment of the Country than they do today. We may be wrong, but there appears to be decreasing personal concern for the look of Bermuda. Coupled with that decreasing concern, we think there is a growing attitude of "not me'', let Government do it, let the National Trust do it, or let KBB do it. These days Government is a large part of the problem and cannot be relied upon to protect the environment. And while the latter two organisations try hard, they are often badly hampered. The lack of strong individual attitudes seems inevitable once there are organisations devoted to causes but without unified pressure everyone is weaker.

Any infringement on Bermuda's environment used to produce a strong response.

Today there is a tendency to say, "Oh well, what can we do?'' That is particularly true when Government is the offender. Shockingly, the public seems to take for granted that offending building projects which are refused by the Development Applications Board will be rubber stamped by the Minister of the Environment or by some acting Minister. Acting Ministers are used flagrantly to approve projects which the Minister cannot or will not deal with but which Government, in its political wisdom, thinks should go ahead. Too often these are political "done deals'' before they even get a public hearing.

But there are also problems with housing. More and more people are building large houses on very average-sized Bermudian lots. Just look at McGall's Hill, Smith's Parish. Part of Bermuda's charm and one of the things everyone finds so attractive is the Bermudian house, appropriate to its own garden. That is the way we create the impression that a very urbanised Bermuda is green and open.

There was a time when Bermudians were very concerned about the size, the look and the number of signs. That no longer seems to be the case. There are any number of examples of signs which are offensive but we hear very few complaints. For a very long time now Government has promised new legislation to control signs but very little seems to happen. One of the things people find most attractive about Bermuda is the careful use of signs. But we think the care is disappearing. Some of the worst offenders are restaurants which are catering to visitors, just look at the signs at the otherwise very attractive Plantation Club.

Bermudians used to express great concern over the look of gas stations. We worried that they would appear too North American and remind visitors of home.

We took care to be sure that these stations had a "Bermudian look''. No more.

Esso recently redid a number of stations in a highly North American and commercial way without so much as one complaint, as far as we know. If you look behind the great gleaming commercial square hoods, you can still see some of the effort that once went into making the stations look Bermudian.

Except for Front Street, we seem no longer to care about the look of Hamilton.

More and more ugly buildings appear and one particularly offensive building has now sprung a twin.

There are other examples of where Bermuda strays into what some people think is progress. Bermudians must not stop caring.