$250,000 in subsidies to the company which takes on Bermudians to do work at the new Berkeley Institute.

He claimed yesterday that both of the companies bidding for the job have promised to use the subsidy to train Bermudians for the tasks which they are apparently untrained to do. Leaving aside the question of whether subsidies of any kind are in the best interest of the taxpayer, Mr. Scott's effort seems fair enough and he claims that the minds of some "cynics'' have already been changed. But there may be better ways for Mr. Scott to achieve his goal.

It is not clear how Government will ensure that the money is spent on training nor what fields the workers will be trained in.

And what is completely uncertain is whether this is the best use of the $250,000 earmarked for training. That same money could be used by Government to employ three or four qualified trainers who could each spend a year training construction workers from all companies in different skills.

That might result in a longer-term benefit for Bermudian construction workers than the limited number of employees that one construction business could reasonably take on for the Berkeley project.

No contractor would take on too many untrained workers who required training before they erected one steel beam or laid one concrete block; that would be asking for trouble.

But targeted, on-site training provided by Government to all businesses in skills like masonry, steel erection and drywall installation would mean a better, more Bermudianised workforce in the long run than the scheme Mr. Scott is proposing.

RESERVE CALL EDT Reserve call New Government Conservation Officer Jeremy Madeiros' hopes of turning Cooper's Island, and possibly Walsingham Jungle, into ecological miracles similar to Nonsuch Island are entirely laudable.

But they also raise the vexed question of how much public use should be permitted in nature reserves. There is a public perception that parks and nature reserves are much the same; nothing could be more wrong.

Over-use of nature reserves like Nonsuch can be damaging in the long run. Even the most well meaning nature lovers bring trash and cause damage to parks; the recent stories about dogs soiling Spittal Pond while being taken for walks are a case in point.

If areas like Cooper's Island and Walsingham Jungle are to be turned into what are in effect wilderness areas, great care will have to be taken to ensure that public access does not damage the attempts to allow indigenous plants to flourish and pre-human settlement Bermuda to return.

At least on Nonsuch Island, the caretakers can prevent people from going on the island. But Cooper's Island is joined to Southside and Walsingham in Bailey's Bay has dozens of points of access. Preserving them will make the decades-long effort at Nonsuch seem simple.