Harris wants to know why Government will not send him tax bills for The Parsonage.

It is the latest twist in the ongoing turmoil over the historic Parsonage at Dockyard where Dr. Harris lives and has made extensive renovations.

Over the last 13 years, Dr. Harris claims to have spent $500,000 in cash and $250,000 in labour renovating the 168-year-old building, which was built for the Dockyard parson and is owned by the Wedco.

Recently, he has been threatened with eviction from the Parsonage unless he accepts an eight-year lease Government has offered him in consideration for the renovations.

Dr. Harris feels he is entitled to a longer-term lease and says much work on the Parsonage remains to be done. When he stepped in in 1982, the building was "full of chickens,'' and Government was planning to tear it down.

Dr. Harris said that since then, Government has refused to enter into a lease with him. Nor would it enter a lease with Wedco allowing Wedco to sublet to him.

In April, Works and Engineering Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons said Government was "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''.

Dr. Harris revealed recently that he has been trying without success to learn from the Attorney General why he has not been billed for Parsonage land taxes for which he has been told he is liable. The Parsonage used to be "zero-valued'' for tax assessment purposes, because it was a Government building, he said.

But about five years ago, the then Minister of Works & Engineering visited the property, decided it was valuable, and had land valuation officials visit, Dr.

Harris said. They gave it an ARV (annual rental value) of $22,000. I then received notification to pay land tax.'' On the advice of Wedco, he did not pay. The Land Valuation Department referred the matter to the Accountant General in 1993, and Dr. Harris said he has yet to receive word about whether he is in fact liable for the taxes.

Most recently, in June, Dr. Harris wrote to Accountant General Ms Heather Matthews, wondering why he had not received her reply that was promised "in due course'' on February 28. "I would like to know why Land Valuation Taxation is being withheld from me with regard to The Parsonage, as according to the Land Valuation Officer, I am responsible for its payment.

"I think it has something to do with the nature of tenancies,'' Dr. Harris said. "If I had actually been paying the tax, for which I believe I was liable, then I would probably be considered to be a sitting tenant, which would put me in a different legal position vis-a-vis the whole dispute over the house.'' Acting Accountant General Mr. Graham Fenton promised to look into the matter.