The Bermuda Recorder

              » for poking & drinking w bermuda jkhecordet hi r published bi weekly price 6d wednesdays 9d saturdays canada's best volume xxxi hamilton bermuda wednesday december 8 1954 no 31 governor tells legislature reasons for changed views on reforms he urged mm i __■ ',-;: : ot t - ■ ■ % ft dijip$s£h i ip i hill nmkmmm mw^kr m bhh1 jbjjj___j_p ■^ k : ymk - ; j^m _________________ ' b|^p?pjl e-j_-----l jc^^_-_r 3b*?^^^flpk 3 h___^____ft^^____h_________i bi pra&-'-^p jf ,<?■ - hiff bli iffll ii!ftffib ■ w jfl •*' v s s$mm\*zz^ess \ : jj kj..m bl_i * ■ 388*^21 l h ar k ilii&nh s i • __■ b b^-__-__-____i bt •/ h n^4t ■ i - ; t g_y'v •: l 1 i_______________r c " '^" ____________ ii_l '-?*'' **'"'' * •'•• ■___.****•'-•■ . w-__-_e«-b-ei v o^^^_____________________________________pv hfc!%v-r9--$l ■ ' : ---- ; i j ' - ■ j-ssassl.^j__is!b_9h_i_!___vi4^^^^^bc ?■ u "" *■_ i<w1^____i i__________i_____________f'?-r ' v&$ihh -_____^^-______-__-_____/^^^-_! h _________ '^ '■' fes^^^i^sl-i 4 b : legco swiftly agrees to raze hamilton hotel mcp's are undecided present system of government served well and attracts best brains who give time without thought of pay while members of the house of assembly were unable to completely make up their minds on monday whether to agree to a report of a joint select committee recommending the de molition of hamilton hotef and erection of a new building on the site to house among other things a modern post office the legislative council unanimously agreed yesterday to raze the 50-year olel structure beeune bermuda's present system of government has serveel her well for many years and attracts a majority of the most able citizens of the colony who give their services loyally unselfishly anel without any thought of pecuniary reward his exce'llency the governor and his advisers have deemed the time not ripe for any reform in government there was a strong faction tn the house led by the chair man id the finance com initti'e mr ernest vesey and the speaker sir john cox which felt that eh'struction of the hotel was an extrava gance we should not contem plate they were more in terested in remodelling the building or building a post office on an entirely different site — would benefit from the pro ject mr pearman saiel that there were buildings in new york catering to thousands more people than our entire popu lation which are built in smaller areas than the site of the present post office he was in favour of leaving the hotel alone and putting a new building on the present post office site the governor sir a'.ex ftinler hood set forth this view in a memorandum sent to the legislature yesterday in compliance with a reepiest from both houses of parlia ment that an explanation be given by the governor on the reasons why he said the time was unripe for constitutional reforms he had earlier and emphatically declared were needed torships in local companies and firms delicate balance leaders in training dr j d smith presiding elder of the a.m.e church in ber niiiela is seen above standing having a friendly chat with ministers anel laymen taking christian leadership courses at the lst a.m.e leadership training institute currently in session dean of the institute is the rev dr f a alleyne pastor of allen temple somerset because of the relatively small population of bermuela and af mm complexity and delicate balance of the organ isation of business upon whieh the economy ef tiir goluity tlepehds i baiiuot but feel that it would uot be in the best interests of the islands as a whole for a number of public spirited men of the high calibre required for the proper direction of govern ment ttt uiiilistei'iai level 10 withdraw from rictive partici pation in the professions and see'o in th front reiw with mrs j d smith are reverends collins richardson alleyne lowe burton simmons foster and biitterfk lei about 100 persons have enrolled for the first course's which conclude etn friday night when certificates will be presented guest speaker will be rev dr xormaii guy — photo by earle perinchief let's not be sentimental mr h j tucker who served on the committee said he was amused by some of the remarks of mr vesey he personally was in favour of adoption of the report or leaving the entire post office proposition as it stand at the moment however the hon wl w davidson member-in-charge of the report told the house that the only thing that could influence one not to agree to razing the building was senti gov8rt.me._t responsible foi irospeniy estimated surplus of expected on loper ation buyers of xmas in his memorandum which reached the house of assem bly on monday and the legis lative council veste'rday m governor hotetl that the pre sent system of government had served well for many years and had brought the colony and the entire popu lation to their present pros perous position however cafeful consideration tif methods by which improve ments in this system could be achieved had demonstrated to him and his advisees the wisdom of retaining the pre sent system it was stated 324,428 year's seals in city ment eligible for present a most careful investiga tion had shown that it would cost an estimated 460,000 to remodel the hotel building while razing it to the ground anel erecting new modern office's would only cost 335 000 mr davidson stated he reckoned it wemld take about a year to prepare plans and another year and a half be tama the entire project was undents if agreed to as regards costs mr davidson said a substantial ii mount of valuable material would be salvaged from the demolition and conld be sold to help bring the cost of de liiei'ition down to 15,000 he said government should be congratulated for purchas ing hamilton hotel 20 years ago at a cost of 90,000 and the corporation of hamilton should likewise be congratu lated for making the sale on the terms they did — that government jyiy them 3,000 yearly for 30 years commerce 5 ";■ s i am satisfied that some of the apparent disadvantages to which 1 drew attention in my speech — mainly in relation to the provision aiid spending of public funds necessary for theservice of government — can be largely overcome by administrative action and by closer liaison between the executive council and the various government boards aiul active steps will be taken towarels this end after bearing a revised report from the finance commit tee on the colony's financial position as of december 31 if the il'iusc of assembly on monday agreed to put into reserve funds 100,000 of the estimated balance of 324,428 which will be left in the treasury at the ehd of the y?ftf the sale of christmas seals began in the city of hamilton ou monday morning when following i abort ceremony the colonial sccf«t»_ry the hon a i t chaplin official ly declared e.pe-n a number of strategically located booths at winch it is expected to raise 1,909 e>r more by christmas eve turning to the question of razing the building mr tucker noted that the hotel was entirely unsuited for the purpose for which it was originally built it was as strong and as almosf as old as a pyramid but was as equally unsuitd for conversion to a good office building as a pyramid mr ernest ws^y chairman of the finance committee sub mitted the report which urged that 75,000 be placed in the public works reserve fund and 2o,000 in the school build ing fund this would then reduce the estimated balance in the treasury to 1.331,040 against which there are no present in a message which accom panied the memorandum to house the governor he had noted the as sembly's wishes tiiat the chairman of the finance com mittee should not serve at the same time as an unofficial member of the executive council in his throne speech the governor wel comed a suggestion that the reverse might have been pos sible the he.oths are located itl front street at a s cemper & son's ltd in reiei str^'t on frith's liquor store veran dah an.l ar the pnst office bermuda has developed a system of government which has served her well over many years and which has brought her and her entire population to their present prosperous position commitments following is the text of finance committees re'port : priations niaeie for the af quired to be reve.teel in 1955 1954 will lapse hut will be re voted in 1955 mr veftfy was highly criti cal of the coiiitrtittee's investi gation of the matter and their final recommendation first he thought that they had slighted local architects by going to the expense of get ting two from england to ad vise them when local ones we're capable of giving simi lar aelvice without cost to ged'ernment 1 your committee having had under consideration the latest available information is of opinion that the revises financial position of the col ony as of 31st december 1954 will be as shown here under : - volunteers who will staff ihe booths include mrs jack warwick mrs ('. ii d mayhew tiie children of mary a group of roman cathedii women who havf rendered similar service for the past two years wives of officers and men at prospect garrison anil mrs william wilson and a number of othits who have ne>t yet been named shortly before debate was deferred mr vesey made a motion to the effect that the committee's report be not adopted at this time but in stead they be sent out ajrain to investigate the possibilities of selliiig hamilton hotel as well soliciting the advice of local architects with regard to converting the hotel into a modern post office 3 in the report submitted by your committee on 5th november last the positions of the public works reserve fund and the school build ings reserve fund were shown in detail anel your committee government should always be looking to its own im provement ; but careful con sideration of methods by which this might be achieved here at this time has tlemon strated to nie anel to my ad visers the wisdom of retain ing the present system which brings within the ambit of government in all its various branches a majority of ber niuela's most able citizens who give their service loyalty un selfishly and without any thoinrht of pecuniary re warel following is the full text of the governor's memorandum : surplus brought from 1953 080,399 forward text of memorandum 1954 receipts continued on page 3 he also criticised the com mittee for not investigating the possibilities of selling the hotel it would be a crime he felt to destroy the ever sinee the government purchased this building there have been certain people who have attempted to decry it semie of the very same ones who years ago said it's good now say destroy it it's no good mr vesey declared in my speech from the throne on april 8 1953 con vening the present parliament i suggested that there was a gap between the executive and the legislature which tended to impair the efficiency of government when the matter is brought under consideration in the assembly today both mr ye<_.-v's motion and mr davidson's — that the hotel be demolished will be put to a vote final balance transferreel from essential commoditie's fuiul 98.291 revenue 1st jan to 30th nov 2.573,025 estimates revenue lst dec to 31st dec 270.000 total 2,941.910 all persons purchasing en velopes ed 100 se>als at the city booths will he eligible to win a lovely surprise package which wili he riven the holder of a lucky number which is being stamped em the front anel flap ed each en velope the flap will be torn off and put into a sealed box on christmas eve there will lie a draw and the person who has the envelope bearing the number drawn wil he given the christmas present only those buying a full sheet of seals will he eligible for the draw those purchasing less than a full sheet will be served from packages of seals without a number newspaper's report on r.c.n i suggested that this situ ation could perhaps best be remedied by an increase in the number of unofficial members of the executive council and by their assumption of minis terial functions and responsi bility 1 __ ■ •* 1 •_ 1 payments tak ; n^0ver dock 0 extraordinary expenditure personal and social 1st january to 30th no yard debunked lawyer francis and banard slated initial payment in respect te purchas of surplus crown lands 350.000 working capital for crown lanels cor poration 90,000 public works reserve fuiul 200 000 school builelings reserve fund 50.000 total 050 000 thev pulled down tower congratulations are extend ed to mrs ethel wilkinson of pembroke who celebrated her birthday yesterday building too ■ a front page report splashed in an issue of the morning paper last week t the effect that the royal canadian xavy was consider ing taking over the elormant dockyard at ireland island was debnnked yesterday by tmr arthur smith chairman of the bermuda drown lands corporation who tolel a press conference that the r.c x was only interested in berth ins facilities at two sections i>f the camber wharf mr percy outerbridge said he was surprised flt mr vesey's reasoning he ad mitteel that there were some good wails in the building anel he would hate to s6fl them taken down but he reminded the house that there were some similarly good walls in the tower building which the bank of butterfield tore down in order to erect something more suit able for their purposes careful and detailed examination of the factors in volved in the institution of a ministerial system has shown that there are serious objec tions to this in view of the particular circumstances of bermuda for defense in * * * murder case due to arrive m bermueta todav after an unexpected delay in new york is nine valdesr leading contender tc the world heavyweight boxing title he will be accom panied by his manager bobby gleason as well as a trainei and a sparring partner the party were expected yester dajh ordinary expenditure 1st jan to 30th november 2,2(58,887 police investigations in the alleged mnrder last week of mr john dublin symonds 61 in parsons roael a week ago are still continuing it was stated this morning estimated expenditure 1st dec to 31st december 385,000 te.tal 3,303,887 it is an accepted canon of constitutional practice that persons on their appointment to ministerial posts must di vest themselves of all outside interests which might in any way conflict with their public responsibilities this would of necessity involve their withdrawal from professional and business activities and their resignation from direc two canadian naval officers who made enquiries about berthing facilities anel epiar ters for one laision offleer estimateel exce'ss incuts over receipts 1954 301,971 of pay ; during meanwhile it is understood by the recorder that the legal services of mr arnolel francis whei will be assisteel by mr ronald banard have been engaged for the defence of charles mcdonald ray who has been formally charged with murdering symonds estimateel balance in tre-as urv 31st december 1954 324.428 the officers were interest ed in knowing what figure we w-ouhl make these facilities available a price was quoted anel now the matter has been placed before the appropriate # * # the newspaper's repe.rt the chairman said is a little elif lvrent from wha.t we know he added that thi corpora tion which controls a major portion of t'.c old dockyard was approached last week by mr russell pearman was against razing the hotel as he thought it was not necessary te commit the colony to the recommended expense he felt that only a few—hard ware and electrical stores etc congratulations are extend ed to mr and mrs phihp grant of church street ham ilton who celebrated their 4th wedding anniversary yes terday revotes for 1955 2 your committee is in formeel that amounts totaling 90,788 in respect to appro continued on page 6 __________*- 1 j_f-h_l_____________i __ bio.squ 1 iw camium -■■ o_!!j c why jnot try these two baking companions