has brought the entire issue of public transportation back before the public.

The Bermuda Industrial Union's taxi drivers' section is angry and demanding that the licence be withdrawn and David Durham, who says he tried for three years to get permission to set up a luxury limousine service from the Airport, feels cheated because he was refused a licence -- yet a licence has now been granted to someone else.

Mr. Durham maintains he did everything he was supposed to do "by the book'' yet he was refused a licence and he would like to know how and why one was granted to Bermuda Small Properties Chief, Stephen Martin. Mr. Durham is not saying he should have received a licence but he is saying that if one was to be granted everybody should have had an opportunity to bid.

We do not know the "ins and outs'' of this issue, but Mr. Durham's stand seems to make a great deal of sense.

We have advocated for a long time that there should be limousine service in Bermuda and that hotels should be able to take good care of their guests by operating courtesy buses to and from the Airport and to Hamilton and the beaches.

In the meantime, the BIU's President, Derrick Burgess, has been quoted as putting Government on warning that "decisions of this sort will no longer be tolerated''. He says that decisions of this kind "further erode'' the viability of the taxi industry in Bermuda. That seems to ignore the fact that people in the taxi industry probably should be moving with the times and looking at ways they can supply what Bermuda needs today for transportation.

It has been clear for a long time that part of the problem is that everyone, visitors and locals alike, find taxi fares too high to use taxis as anything but "special occasion'' rides. We think that the taxi section of the BIU should be concerned about the regular complaints that taxis are difficult to come by and that booked taxis frequently do not arrive. That probably costs taxi drivers more fares than the limousine services do and erodes the viability of the taxi industry.

We know that taxis are expensive to operate and we have advocated before that Government should find a way to give taxis regular allowances of duty free gas. We also think that Government should change its thinking and look on taxis as necessary transportation and not as private business to be taxed as part of Government's income. Taxis are public transportation and Government would have to provide service in place of private taxis. It already provides bus and ferry service whether or not it is lucrative and it should look hard at other ways to reduce the cost of operating taxis which would allow for curtailing taxi fares if for no other reason than that taxis are vital to tourism. Minimum licence fees and duty free cars would be a bonus for taxi operators.

This limousine row points out the need for a total review of Bermuda's future transportation needs -- for both locals and visitors. There is a double and difficult problem here. Government must concern itself with looking after those people who make their living in transportation. However it also has a duty to ensure that locals have transportation and that visitors can get about Bermuda conveniently and at a sensible cost. If visitors cannot do that, they become captives in their hotels.