the new Parish Councils.

But Health and Social Services Minister Nelson Bascome denied that black people had been singled out for favourable treatment -- but said the choices reflected who MPs or branches thought would be capable.

And he pointed out the new appointments were interim ones, pending democratic elections to the councils in a year.

Mark Selley -- formerly of the Water Safety Council -- claimed only around ten percent of the 100 councillors were white.

And he said that contrasted with Development and Opportunity Minister Terry Lister's call for expatriate employees to reflect the roughly 70/30 black/white makeup of Bermuda.

Mr. Selley added: "These percentages are a glaring contrast to the call he has recently made regarding the racial demographics of Bermuda, which is generally accepted to be 70/30.

"It would appear..that the message is very clear -- `do as I say, not as I do'.'' Mr. Selley stressed: "For the most part, in and of themselves, the names reflect a good balance of integrity and a fair cross-section of the population.

"This is good. I was disturbed to see that only eight, maybe eleven, are white. This is not good.'' He added: "This may be a small observation -- but it's clearly a big problem.

Let's fix it before it's too late.'' Mr. Lister could not be contacted for comment yesterday.

But Mr. Bascome -- responsible for appointing Parish councillors -- said he left the nomination of candidates to area MPs or branches where there were no sitting PLP MPs.

Using Warwick as an example, he said: "We have four representatives in Warwick and we have 12 people on the council.

"More than enough times, they will pick people they have worked very closely with, who have administrative skills and someone they will trust to get the job done.

"It's not about race -- it's along the lines of not the colour of the skin, but who knows them.

"And it's not about us saying, `you white folks who were on them before, you can't serve because you're white'.'' He added: "When you look at the membership of the PLP, it's probably 98 percent black and that's something which has historically been the case.

"Looking around at the make-up of our boards, we want more white people to become involved and I'm sure that will happen.'' Mr. Bascome added: "We are looking at elected Parish Councils -- these are caretaker councils, then it's open to anyone to stand. We will be opening it up to the democratic process.

"Hopefully, some of the people we appoint will want to stay on and represent their parish.'' And he said the new-look councils would have more powers than the old appointed ones -- with a special emphasis on developing rest homes for area senior citizens.

But Mr. Bascome added: "They will have some powers and more powers, although they will still be subject to the Minister.

"Five Parish Councils have rest homes -- and each parish should look towards developing rest homes or seniors' homes so seniors won't be too far away from their families.''