Former United Bermuda Party MP Mr. Philip Smith decried the lack of a homegrown Governor yesterday in one of the first public post-mortems on the Island's recent Independence referendum.

During a wide-ranging speech in which he admonished the Police for sending Commissioner Colin Coxall to a drugs conference in Cuba last month, the one-time chairman of both the Civil Aviation and the Public Transportation Boards also attacked the Corporation of Hamilton's decision to expand the Bull's Head carpark, which he said would simply contribute to the city's traffic woes.

"What we've done is build a carpark that attracts more cars to the city,'' Mr. Smith said of the nearly completed three-storey facility. "We don't need more cars in Hamilton.'' Instead, the former St. George's backbencher told Hamilton Lions at the Princess Hotel, it would have made more sense to build a large carpark in a satellite parish like Southampton and encourage commuters to continue into Hamilton on public transport.

In the same vein, he noted, the Island's bus and ferry systems would have to be improved enough for commuters to want to use them.

In large part, however, Mr. Smith concentrated in his speech on the alleged political failures that have followed the Independence referendum.

At the top of his agenda was the continued lack of a locally appointed Governor.

"To me,'' Mr. Smith said, "Independence meant we would finally have a Bermudian as Governor, rather than some British politician who had served his country well and was rewarded by living in Government House for three or four years at the Bermudian taxpayers' expense.'' "I have checked the (Island's) Constitution,'' he continued, "and unless it was an oversight on my part, there is no reason that a Bermudian cannot serve as Governor. (The appointment of a Briton) is more of a tradition than a Constitutional (requirement).'' Citing such long-time public servants as former Premier Sir John Sharpe, National Liberal Party chairman Mr. Gilbert Darrell and former MP Mr. Austin Thomas, Mr. Smith added that "all Bermudians would love to have a Bermudian as their Governor'' and urged the Island's constituents "to lobby their MPs to have a Bermudian appointed as Governor''.

On the drugs issue, the former MP was particularly wary of the Police's decision recently to send Mr. Coxall, a contracted Briton, to a United Nations drugs conference in Havana.

"He is here on a three-year contract,'' Mr. Smith said of Mr. Coxall. "There are two years and three months left on that contract. My personal feeling is that he shouldn't have been the one to (have been sent). It should have been someone in narcotics who will remain on the Island and from whose experience Bermudians can benefit.'' As it turned out, Bermuda had no representation at all at the conference, since a mix-up over Commissioner Coxall's travel papers got him only as far as Mexico.

Mr. Smith, who said that Bermudians were "very much in denial'' about drugs, told the assembly that he was "very disappointed'' with the number of officers that are currently assigned to narcotics.

On the subject of education, he also said that he disagreed with Government's overall policy in the area, saying the Education Ministry should "just plug the leaks in education'' instead of totally revamping an essentially sound system.