the Parsonage as punishment for challenging the United Bermuda Party establishment in a Paget East by-election.

If so, the message is a "very frightening'' one for the people of Bermuda, Dr. Edward Harris said yesterday.

The 168-year-old Parsonage, where Dr. Harris lives, served as home to Royal Navy chaplains until 1951. But in the late 1950s, it was rented out to chicken farmers and was in severe disrepair when Dr. Harris started restoration work in 1982.

Since then, he estimates he has pumped $500,000 in cash and $250,000 in labour into the home, one of the first Bermuda houses to have a typical late-Georgian design and a veranda.

But Government has refused to sign a long-term lease with Dr. Harris which would revert to the museum -- a lease Dr. Harris says is typically used in such restoration jobs.

Although Government refused to sign a lease, Dr. Harris said he kept working on the Parsonage, because nobody told him to "cease and desist'', either.

On June 7, the Ministry of Works & Engineering wrote Dr. Harris urging him to accept an eight-year lease that Government has offered or face eviction proceedings.

Dr. Harris said Government believes he is entitled to only a 21-year lease, backdated to 1982. He feels that would take away his "major asset'', just when he is ready to retire. Nor does the offer take account of the $250,000 still needed to complete the renovation, he said.

"When similar ventures to this one go through smoothly for other people, one must wonder why Government refuses to deal fairly with (me),'' Dr. Harris said. He wondered if he was "being punished for running against the inner party line in the 1994 (United Bermuda Party) Paget East primary, and for holding views on preservation, especially shipwrecks, that run against what some very powerful people stand for.'' In the primary, Dr. Harris fought hard in a losing cause against the Hon.

Grant Gibbons, who was seen as the choice of the party establishment and has taken charge of the Base handover as Minister of Management and Technology. By pushing for legislation to protect shipwrecks, Dr. Harris believes he has upset other powerful interests in Government.

The longstanding dispute is making his position as Maritime Museum director extremely difficult, he said. "Although we're a private organisation, I'm in a public civil servant situation where I have to work with the Government of the day.

"Because I'm at loggerheads with this Parsonage thing, it has created many, many difficulties.'' The June 7 letter from Ministry valuation surveyor Ms Karen Williams said Cabinet had instructed "the matter is not open for further discussion at this time''.

An earlier letter told Dr. Harris to accept the Ministry's offer or it would be withdrawn and "the Attorney General's Chambers will be instructed to take appropriate legal action for possession''.

Works & Engineering Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons has said Government is "trying to come to an equitable position, having regard to what he has done there and having regard to the fact that it's taxpayers' property''.