Premier Jennifer Smith believes letters sent to voters about changes to the constitution have been appreciated and welcomed -- despite the fact they were sent out several weeks late.

Her deputy, Finance Minister Eugene Cox apologised in The Royal Gazette last week after residents received the six-page document following the debate about the changes in the House of Assembly.

The letters, sent to almost 37,000 households, were written by the Premier on November 10 and outlined Government's plans to alter the Constitution, particularly the re-drawing of constituency boundaries and the reduction in the number of MPs.

But the letters also suggested voters with an opinion on the proposals talk to their MP before the issue came up before Parliament.

However, some of the letters did not reach the Post Office until last Monday -- two days after the debate in the House had been held over whether or not there should be a constitutional conference.

It was Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before they arrived at many homes on the Island.

Mr. Cox said it was a pure mistake that the letters had gone out late, and said he believed it was because the whole process had taken longer than anticipated.

But in a statement released by the Premier last week, she said it was not too late for people to still make themselves heard.

She said: "You will understand that after the letter was written on November 10, the accompanying documentation had to be printed, addressed individually to all 36,567 voters, placed in envelopes and then mailed in batches to the electorate.

"I would like to think that most voters welcome and appreciate the opportunity to have this important information mailed directly to them.

"The debate has not ended. I will continue to inform the public and I trust that they will thus be better informed for the next step in this process.'' Premier Smith said following the first of three public meetings organised by Government on the changes, she felt it was vital that residents received all the relevant information.

She added: "We had already begun to distribute copies of the amendments throughout the Island and continued to do so before, during and after each public meeting held in Hamilton, Somerset, and St. George's.

"During the first meeting we referred to the checklist that accompanied the UK White Paper, Progress for Prosperity, and there was considerable public interest in it.'' The Premier said because of the interest, she decided to include the checklist in the mailed documents, which slowed up the process of sending them out.

But in the House of Assembly on Friday, Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons mocked the Government for sending out the letters, dated November 10, several weeks later.

He said the fact that it was not mailed led the Opposition to be "suspicious this might have been nothing more than a PR exercise''.

He said Government must have known the letter would not get to voters until too late and should have taken out an advert in the newspaper to explain the changes before the Parliamentary debate.

And he mocked the Government for not giving the Opposition the constitutional checklist put out by the British Government and then giving it to 36,000 voters a few weeks later.

He said: "John Barritt did raise the question about the Constitutional checklist -- why we could not have it.'' Premier Jennifer Smith said her position was that if the British Government were not going to give the UBP the checklist then nor would her Government.

Dr. Gibbons said: "This is childish behaviour.'' He said that it was this kind of behaviour which sparked the suspicion about the Government's motives.

Dr. Gibbons said when such issues were raised, the Government then took it as a personal affront.

He said: "If they wonder why we are mistrustful or suspicious this is exactly why.'' He said the letters arrived soon after being mailed.

"You can't blame the Post office in this case,'' said Dr. Gibbons. And Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell said he was very suspicious that the letters had seemingly been lost and then found, just a couple of days after the debate in the House.

He added: "Where were these letters? Isn't it convenient that these letters did not go out -- they happened to be found the day after we finished our debate.

"I believe there is trickery at work here and there is deceit at work here -- it certainly has the appearance of it.

"I believe these letters were written so they (Government) could say to the UK Government that `we did have dialogue with our people and we got something out' but you won't say it was a little late.

"What did this cost? It's an absolute waste of public money''.