Vagrants have set up `home' only yards from the seat of power in Bermuda, it was revealed this week.

For people have been using the eastern garden of the Cabinet Building -- the office of the Premier -- to sleep in and as a toilet.

But Police have now increased patrols in the area and say reports of incidents have decreased.

The news came in the annual report of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Parks.

The report, for 1994, the latest figures available, said the gardener at the Cabinet Building was continuing to do excellent work.

But it added that vagrants were causing problems at the east end of the Hamilton Government office.

Department Director John Barnes said: "It's been an ongoing problem -- there are gates on all the entrances except for the Court Street side.

"It's dark there and there are a lot of bushes. It makes life a little difficult for our gardeners.

"But short of having a Policeman on duty there 24 hours a day or putting a gate on it, there's not much we can do.'' Mr. Barnes added that the vagrants did not represent a major security headache at the Cabinet Buildings.

He said: "I think with most of them, it's a case of drunk and incapable or genuinely homeless.

"I wouldn't have thought there were any security implications -- they are not out to steal State secrets.'' The Cabinet Office is also only yards from Hamilton's Police station. A Police spokesman confirmed that Police had been notified of the problem and officers regularly patrolled the area at night.

He said that there were other security measures in place which he declined to divulge for operational reasons.

The spokesman added: "There have been very few incidents this year where people have been found on the property.'' Yesterday, Premier David Saul said he was aware there had been a problem, but insisted it had been largely eradicated by the regular Police patrols.

He said: "It has been cleared up dramatically -- nothing has been brought to my attention over the last three or four months.'' Elsewhere in the annual report, it was noted that there were 624 reported incidents of illegal activity in parks across the Island -- down 14 percent on the previous year, 1993.

Mr. Barnes said the major problem was litter, accounting for 176 of the incidents, followed by vehicle-related incidents, including the dumping of stolen cycles.

There were 94 reports of property damage, while complaints about animals totalled 42. Illegal camping accounted for 28 incident reports and more than 20 cases of vandalism were logged.

South Shore Park -- probably the most popular park on the Island -- accounted for the largest percentage of reports, a total of 125.

Within the area, Warwick Long Bay logged up 52 separate incidents, with 36 noted in Horeshoe Bay and 30 in Chaplin Bay.

Mr. Barnes said: "Litter is our biggest problem, especially in the summer.'' But he added that parks workers could track people down from envelopes in the dumped garbage.

He said: "We take it right back to them -- it's quite amazing some of the people who are guilty of this.'' Mr. Barnes added there was no excuse for using Bermuda's natural heritage as a garbage dump.

"It you can take your garbage as far as the park, you can take it to one of the collection centres.'' On vandalism, Mr. Barnes said it was not a major problem in the parks network -- but that he would rather it did not exist at all.

He added: "It's against the law and if we catch people at it, we will prosecute. The facilities are there for people to use and enjoy and the more people use them, the more care they will take of them.

"Vandalism is detrimental to everybody and could damage the image of the Island for visitors.''