committee looking into problems with young people at the Hamilton bus terminal. It has been suggested that school prefects form small supervisory teams in response to problems at the Washington Street terminal which have sparked complaints from shopkeepers in the area that student turmoil was scaring away customers.

Senator Michael Winfield chaired the committee which has met with the Director of Public Transportation, the Chief Education Officer and the Police and, instead of coming up with what we might have expected, a scheme to police the students, the committee has decided that the students can police themselves by the use of prefects. We think the committee has come up with a very sensitive solution.

Senator Winfield has said, "By involving the Ministry of Transport and education officials, parents and the students themselves, we believe this situation can be dramatically improved.'' The committee felt that increased Police presence would lead to additional problems. The committee strongly suggested to Cabinet that the problems at Washington Street were best solved by students.

Senator Winfield said, "From all the evidence available to it, the committee is convinced that much of the problem is caused, not by the students themselves, but by additional youths who congregate in the area.'' That, of course, may be true. But it is only true in the sense that some of those youths who congregate are no longer in the schools or have left school because of problems but it still means that there is a young people problem which just happens to manifest itself at the bus depot because young people congregate where there are young people. Saying that the bus station problem is not always caused by students does not mean there is not a young people problem.

Senator Winfield, the Minister responsible for Government Information Services, could not, of course, resist the temptation to take the easy way out and blame bus terminal problems on the media by saying that bus terminal incidents receive a disproportionate amount of media attention.

Disproportionate compared with what? Chief Education Officer Mr. Dean Furbert has said, "Appropriate behaviour at the bus terminal is everyone's responsibility.'' Not really. It falls in the area of responsibility of parents and parent organisations and schools and the students themselves but it does not fall on other people using public transport and it certainly does not fall on visitors using buses.

What the report says to students is very simple. We will not send in "the man'' about whom you so often complain. We have faith in you. We think you are mature enough and responsible enough. Now we will leave you alone so that you can clean up your own act.

This solution can probably work and the students should welcome the decision as a vote of confidence in them and set about making it work. This is the chance for students to prove responsibility and maturity.