Westminster System of Government for members of government boards to stand down on a change of government. She said that her new ministers would be looking at the various boards which come within their area of responsibility and would report back on any needed changes.

That, of course, is as it should be.

We think there is something rather quaint and antiquated about some of the government boards. Some are really a holdover from the days before party politics when there were no Cabinet ministers and boards and board chairmen held considerable power. They made decisions which were acted upon. However that has not been true for a great many years. In reality, we think some of them could well have been abolished when Bermuda moved to Cabinet government.

If you take a hard look at Bermuda you might well think that a tiny Country of some 60,000 people is way over-governed.

First of all, there are 40 members of the House of Assembly and in Election '98 the person with the most votes was Dale Butler in Warwick East with only 1,320.

Then there are 11 appointed Members of the Senate, split between the ruling party, the Opposition and the Independents appointed by the Governor.

Then there are the appointed Parish Councils which do little if anything these days and are the remnants of the old elected Parish Vestry system which used to be quite powerful.

Don't forget that we also have two elected Corporations and two mayors for the City and the Town.

Then there is a huge and complex array of 108, yes 108, Government Boards, some doing important work but some the remains of advisory boards which are no longer listened to.

We must wonder how often some of these boards meet and what they contribute today. It might seem that deliberations by some of these boards might be better handled by direct decision making in the ministries. Surely it must be possible to amalgamate any number of them or to move some of the responsibilities back to Ministers and the civil servants in the Ministries.

There are, of course, some boards which are important because they need to demonstrate independence from Government and to perform functions which keep a check on what Government does, notably the Development Applications Board. The Criminal Injuries Compensations Board is a quasi-judicial Board which is valuable. The National Drugs Commission is another very valuable board.

We are not, of course, suggesting the abolition of Government Boards but we do think that the new Premier and her Cabinet might think the time is right to take a hard look at the large number of boards and might feel that it is time to continue the housecleaning.