processing at the Civil Air Terminal last weekend. The complaints came about because large numbers of Bermudians took advantage of the November 11 weekend to go away and do their Christmas shopping. When they returned with bags, boxes and bundles they caused delays at the Airport.

The problem does not seem to have had much to do with welcome holidaying visitors who had nothing to declare and were passed relatively quickly either through the exit door or through the "nothing to declare'' line. Therefore much of the crowding applied only to locals.

First let us say that everyone in Bermuda knows that there is an unsolved problem at the Airport. The Government built a departures section which cost still uncounted millions but, despite boasts that it was going to provide a new Airport, has not yet built the arrivals section.

Despite general shortcomings at the Airport, which we have pointed out regularly and which successive Ministers of Transport seem unwilling to solve, the problem now complained of at the Airport is not a regular feature of travel to Bermuda as it is in some airports. Those who travel a good deal know that airports the world over have problems and Bermuda's Airport works more smoothly than most. No country can build its public facilities to meet unusual maximum demand. While we do think Bermuda should have had a whole Airport for the price it paid for a departure area, conditions in our old arrivals area are not generally chaotic.

Because the November 11 weekend situation was unusual, we think that locals should have been more willing to have some hassle knowing that their travel pattern created the jam. The fact is that a solution, which would be either a larger arrivals area or more processing staff, or both, would cost Bermudians more in taxes than they could save on the goods they brought home. It was the large quantities of imports which created the problem. A normal mix of Airport passengers which would be heavy on visitors and only some locals, not all of whom would have things to declare, does not cause Airport problems. The problem was planes full of locals all with goods to declare.

A solution to a sometime problem is not an easy thing to judge because it is a one-off situation. It may be that there could have been a temporary Customs solution on the November 11 weekend, but at weekend pay it would have been an expensive solution and could well have negated the Customs duties collected from overseas Christmas shoppers. It would also have caused some Bermudians to have to work on their weekend off.

Too often in Bermuda we seem to assume that everything should always be totally convenient. That probably comes about because so many things in Bermuda are so very convenient. Sometimes there will be a problem with any facility because no country in the world can afford to build for maximum usage. We have to expect that on some occasions public facilities will be busy and heavily used. That is true also of private facilities. You do not enlarge your house just so that you can have one large party. Government cannot do that either.