strong temptation to ignore such a suggestion as being improbable but after eight to ten years of poor retail business that could happen. Many businesses have kept their doors open through frequent sales and by spending reserves, hoping for a revival in visitor business but that cannot go on forever. We have already seen Karl's Guys and Dolls decide to go and the public must wonder who will be next.

Bermuda must recognise that the retail sector is a substantial employer just as the hotels are substantial employers of people who might not be able or might not want to seek employment in the international business sector. Any country needs a variety of employment in order to have a high employment rate and for years now Bermuda has been accustomed to very high employment. Yet we tax the retail sector in a discriminatory way which is today above their ability to pay. If we allow local business to fail, we will create pockets of people who may be unemployable elsewhere.

Bermudians cannot shop in the malls of America all of the time and visitor shopping is a major part of the Bermuda holiday experience. Monitor has been suggesting niche marketing and a concentration on upmarket tourism and upmarket tourism demands good shopping.

We know that it has been fashionable in Bermuda for a number of years to criticise retailers and to complain about the prices but in many cases the retail prices were high simply because the cost of doing business in Bermuda is high. There was a time when the United States imposed high import duties on goods, especially goods from Britain and Europe, and then Bermuda could undersell the US retailers. High US duties are no longer imposed but Bermuda continues to impose duties which must be paid before the imported goods are sold.

That system made sense and supported the Government as long as retailing was profitable. Today we impose much the same system on retailers who are not profitable because their growth and their future is threatened by hobbles placed on them which prevent them from controlling their own future.

It will be too late to cry and to complain about a lack of shops after we have killed retailing. Many of Bermuda's stores took years to build their reputations and to establish their image. They could not be replaced by other stores in a hurry, even if someone wanted to take a chance on retailing.

Then too what would Hamilton look like if store fronts were boarded over? That has happened in North American cities where town centres have died when faced with suburban and mall competition. Today Bermuda's merchants face that competition.