Dear Sir,

I enjoy reading the printed version of The Royal Gazette and always find new information about Bermuda within its pages. Just today my eyes were drawn to an advertisement on page 27 of your September 26 edition, a colourful advert that was headed by the question: “Why look abroad when world-class education is here at home?”

Under this question was a map of Bermuda printed in pink with the logos of eight schools positioned where these institutions of learning are located on the island. As I examined the map, I had to wonder whether geography was still being taught at local schools, as Harrington Sound was missing — not the school, but the actual body of water itself.

According to this map, there is no Flatts Inlet , no Trunk Island, no Abbot’s Cliff, no Shark Hole and no Devil’s Hole — all significant natural landmarks that I would personally miss tremendously. Nope, on this map there is no water, just an expansive area of solid pink ... and even Spittle Pond only occasionally turns pink when the algae “blooms”.

Being a “glass half-full” kind of guy, I did consider that the expanded land surface presented on this map would surely mean that both Flatts Victoria Recreation Club and Cleveland County Cricket Club would be granted sufficient acreage to build larger cricket fields and support buildings for their players and members. This would help ensure that the much loved Eastern Counties Cricket competition would thrive and become even more captivating.

I considered the potential for a Bermuda Railway line from the East End to the central parishes over this pristine plain, but then realised that all that new land would surely mean additional political constituencies and my head started to hurt.

It is obvious that a mistake was made when that “map” of Bermuda was selected to be part of the advert. I will leave it to your investigative reporters to get to the bottom of who created the map, how to purge it from the art files of The Royal Gazette and whether the key contacts at the eight schools had any knowledge of it being used in their otherwise enlightening advertisement.

With cartological regards,

BRUCE BARRITT

Devonshire