the largest cash gift ever given in Bermuda. There have, of course, been larger gifts of real estate, notably the Gibbons Family gift of Locust Hall to the Bermuda National Trust.

The health care company Corange Limited has made its gift to Bermuda College for a Corange Science Centre to provide new science labs. The leaders of Corange hope that the science centre will motivate Bermudian students to pursue careers in the field of science. Therefore it is entirely appropriate that the academic superstar Dr. Malcolm Brock, who attended Bermuda College, became a Rhodes Scholar, and is now a surgical resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, came back to Bermuda to take part in ceremonies involving the gift by Corange.

As big and as welcome as this million dollar gift is, it is only an indication of the huge amounts of money contributed to Bermuda by non-Bermudian companies resident here. Hardly a day goes by that one international company or another is not giving Bermuda large sums of money. Just as an example, in Thursday's newspaper six other international companies were being recognised for gifts of over $100,000 each to the Council Partners campaign to combat drugs.

There are very few Bermudian charities which do not benefit from corporate benefactors. The truth is that there are so many solicitations and fund campaigns going on right now that we have to wonder how some of these companies keep giving and giving. Bermuda would be much poorer in terms of its facilities without this generosity. Sometimes Bermudians seem to take these gifts for granted with an attitude which says, "Why shouldn't they give away their money, they make plenty in Bermuda.'' Yet there is nothing which says these companies have to be such good corporate citizens. The companies could just as easily say, "Bermuda is rich. Let Bermudians give money to their own causes.'' The answer is that plenty of Bermudians do give money to their own causes, notably the two leading banks, the Bank of Bermuda and the Bank of N.T.

Butterfield. But there are also a large number of Bermudian individuals giving money.

We are especially happy to see Corange Limited supporting Bermuda College.

Sometimes the College is taken just as much for granted as the gifts from the international companies are. When the College was first created, there were many people who felt that it would have difficulty surviving and, at best, would be a minor institution catering to those students who could not gain admission elsewhere. The College has instead become an enormous success both socially and academically with high standards, good graduates and an excellent record of admissions to further studies overseas. Bermuda College is one of Bermuda's most notable success stories.

We do not think the College has always had the level of support it deserved from either Government or the public. Too often it has been looked at as "local'' and that translates to "second rate'' which is simply not true. As Dr. Malcolm Brock said on Wednesday, "I had a great time at Bermuda College.

It was very challenging. The curriculum was probably as tough as anywhere I went.''