shelters, Works Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons has promised.

But Mr. Gibbons, speaking during Friday's Throne Speech Debate in the House of Assembly, warned he would not play Santa Claus for those demanding bus shelters, better roads, and an improved garbage pick-up.

Pledging to try to make his Ministry more "user friendly'', he promised requests to the Ministry would be addressed -- and then prioritised.

Priority lists for such parish concerns would be published.

On road resurfacing, Mr. Gibbons said much work had been done or was planned.

North Shore in Hamilton Parish and Flatts Village still needed to be done.

It was also intended to work on St. George's, said Mr. Gibbons.

"After April 1 it is our intention to do 10 miles of road every year. I will try to do this with the assistance of the private sector.'' Mr. Gibbons outlined other projects in hand.

Tenders, for instance, had gone out for a new dock and terminal at Ordnance Island, St. George's.

He stressed $1 million had been budgeted for the scheme -- not $1.7 million as had been reported.

Mr. Gibbons said his Ministry had worked with that of Labour and Home Affairs to provide temporary employment for the jobless.

Many on the programme had moved on to find permanent employment. "Fifty six people are on this programme doing meaningful work.'' Turning to capital projects, Mr. Gibbons said the $70 million Tynes Bay incinerator remained the number one priority.

"It is scheduled to have light up or initial burn next spring. It will be coming fully onto line in the next 12 months.'' Mr. Gibbons said there had been 22 applicants for 15 posts at the incinerator.

On the $40 million prison -- now termed the correctional facility -- Mr.

Gibbons admitted the project was behind schedule, although on budget.

"We are looking to the contractor for liquidated damages,'' he said.

The same was true for the $2 million Ocean View Club House.

Mr. Gibbons then focused on controversy surrounding new parking restrictions at Cavello Bay in Somerset.

Angry commuters had complained restrictions were slapped on them without notice.

But Mr. Gibbons said there were only two bays which could be set up for all-day parking at the wharf.

Parking restrictions were imposed following concern over access for emergency vehicles.

Plans were also in the pipeline for a family court, said Mr. Gibbons.

Earlier, Mr., Gibbons had repeated his stance on race.

Institutionalised racism was a perception to whites, but to blacks it was real.

"It is in fact real,'' Mr. Gibbons declared.

Mr. Gibbons voiced concern over the controversy surrounding the appointment of the Hon. Jerome Dill to tackle racism.

He disagreed with Opposition Leader Mr. Frederick Wade , who claimed a white man should have got the job.

"I believe any position should be filled by the best person for the job.'' Mr. Gibbons said Mr. Dill would need the assistance and support of all members of the community.

Deputy Opposition Leader and Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Mr. Walter Roberts said two bays were insufficient to accommodate people in the area.

The Sandys South MP also called for the ferry service to be extended to Somerset Bridge.

Turning to recycling, Mr. Roberts expressed concern over how recyclables were being disposed of.

He had heard reports newspaper and steel cans were finding their way back to Pembroke Dump.

Mr. Roberts then turned the spotlight on the White Hill area, where a bus shelter was needed.

Money should not be used as an excuse not to do the necessary work.

"It is much more important to me, and more practical, to put a covered lay-by there rather than a wall along White Hill.'' He added: "I would like to see the Ministry be more sensitive to the needs of people. Be more people sensitive.'' Mr. Roberts said urgent improvements were also needed for several road junctions -- those at Woodlands Road and Main Road, Scott's Hill Road, and Long Bay Lane.

He added he was compiling a list of complaints about problems across the Island, from St. George's to Sandys.

Mr. Roberts went on to voice alarm at reports young people employed to do landscaping by the West End Development Corporation were being replaced by workers hired by a private firm.

He called for the reports to be looked into.

Mr. Roberts said there was serious unemployment in Sandys Parish, especially among young black males.

He went on to appeal for more hedge-trimming, and improved road marking.

Mr. Roberts then switched to the "cost of democracy'' in Bermuda.

"As far as I am concerned democracy still does not exist in Bermuda. I believe that every obstacle has been put in the path of true democracy.'' Mr. Roberts said he had been reliably informed the United Bermuda Party had spent $5 million on the election campaign.

"There should be laws on the books to indicate the total cost of running the election.'' He added: "There also should be parity with regards to the amount of money that is provided for by the parties.'' Mr. Roberts said the UBP was by and large representative of big business and people with money.

The PLP was by and large representative of the poorer people in Bermuda and the middle class.

Both parties should be on a level playing field when conducting an election campaign, said Mr. Roberts.

On institutionalised racism, Mr. Roberts doubted white people's resolve to deal with it.

"To deal with the problem means losing much of their power.'' The old boy network was also in place to thwart moves to combat racism.

Mr. Roberts went on to attack Government for not helping Sandys Parish in its battle against drugs.

People in Sandys had got together to fight the problem, and had made strides.

Why had Government chosen St. David's to launch a pilot drug prevention scheme? Sandys was further ahead in fighting drugs than St. David's, said Mr. Roberts.

Mr. Roberts continued by expressing worry over the "erosion of Bermuda's shorelines''.

And he ended with calls for Bermuda's schools to be upgraded.

Schools were "below par'' compared to those in many other countries, he said.

Rookie MP and Government Whip Mr. John Barritt began his maiden speech by highlighting a common thread through the Throne Speech.

"The common thread to which I refer is that of Government by consultation and participation of and by all Bermudians in the decision making process of this country.

"The commitment is evident right from the outset.'' He added: "This is not a hollow declaration but a clarion call from the trumpet of Government.'' Mr. Barritt spotlighted three areas underscoring this approach. He began with the economy.

"Government initiated the process of participation well in advance of an election with task forces of employment and the Commission on Competitiveness, both of which will shortly be reporting.'' He continued: "The opportunity will be there for all to be involved. To have a say and to be a part of the solution in the way ahead.

"And this inclusive approach will be critical as we assess and evaluate our options in light of the impending wind-down of the US Navy Base.'' Mr. Barritt then turned to race relations.

"Again, Mr. Speaker, here is an opportunity to be a part of the solution, to be a part of the decision-making process in the way ahead.

"An invitation and an entreaty to be included and not excluded.'' He added: "In effect, we are saying and we are re-committing ourselves to the principle that whatever our differences we are all in this together.

"A belief that we can go forward together and that we should go forward together.

"To put it on a personal level, it is the difference between greeting someone with a warm embrace or turning your back on someone.'' Mr. Barritt said people should not sit on the sidelines on race.

Communities should be built on what their members have in common.

"And at the root of what we all have in common is a desire to succeed.'' Mr. Barritt focused on linking skin colour with candidacy for a job.

He strongly disagreed colour should be the sole, predominant consideration.

And he believed there was a will to ensure colour did not hold anyone back.

"We are not a society of rabid racists -- those days, those people are gone.'' But he accepted there were residual pockets of prejudice -- a "deleterious legacy from our past woven into the fabric of some of our older institutions who have their origins or their roots in days of active overt segregation.'' These pockets of prejudice had to be removed.

Mr. Barritt accepted he did not know what it was like to be black.

"Nor can I know what it means, the full import of being the son or product of generations who for years were openly, deliberately and inhumanely dismissed just because of the colour of their skin.

"But as a person, from my own experiences in life, Mr. Speaker, I do have some sense of, an idea or a feeling as to what it must be like to be rejected.'' Mr. Barritt switched to the third area -- drugs.

"Nothing succeeds like success and we have seen the success which various community groups already enjoy in the parishes of Sandys, Warwick and Paget and next St. David's.'' Mr. Barritt finished by calling for an end to the principle of non-involvement.

People needed to realise the power they had -- and to get involved in solving the country's ills.

"It is perhaps fitting on the anniversary of his tragic death to recall the words of the late JFK. Words I heard as a youngster of thirteen and have never forgotten. `Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country'.'' Shadow Education Minister Ms Jennifer Smith said the PLP was still in the dark over Government's education plans.

And she continued by calling for education to be multi-cultural.

"I suggest we take a multi-cultural approach to the curriculum.'' She pointed out she was not calling for black history in schools.

"I have called for multi-cultural education in general. It's something I feel is good for all students, not just black students.

"All students will have to operate in a world that is multi-cultural. I think this is one of the ways we can tackle prejudice.'' Ms Smith said it was wrong to blame children for the failure of the education system.

It was schools which had failed children. Not vice versa.

Ms Smith attacked the Government for its "neglect'' of the Roberts Avenue campus of Bermuda College. She said the cafeteria and support facilities had been resisted in the new Stonington campus which had a bad effect on the students who had to remain.

She said: "You should have made sure that those left behind were not deprived of services they need to progress in a meaningful way. The result has been that students have dropped out.'' Concerning putting students with special needs into mainstream schools, Ms Smith feels that it was carried out too quickly. She said: "Normally this Government moves very slowly, particularly when it comes to education.

"But mainstreaming was done within a year, Friendship Vale closed and students were put into other schools. It was done in an ineffective manner.'' She added that time should have been taken to train teachers and to "sensitise'' students.

Ms Smith called for more responsibility to be given to students like making rules for school. She was concerned that young people are expected to be responsible when they reach 18, although they had not been trusted up to that point.

And the Shadow Minister then called on MPs to spend a day teaching a class of 25 children, most likely from dysfunctional homes because of alcoholism, drugs, abuse or divorce.

She said: "I challenge you to see what it is like in 1993. Until you deal with problems that impact on their ability to learn, you cannot get them to learn.'' Government MP the Hon. John Stubbs called for new rules to stop debates lasting a long time. He attacked members who had repeated themselves during the debate on the Throne Speech which had stretched over four days.

Dr. Stubbs said he would be addressing racism and that he found it objectionable when an Opposition member claimed the only people interested in integration in the UBP were black members. He stressed his interest in racism went back to 1950.

He said it grieved him to see blacks expecting to see the Opposition elected in the near future. He said: "If this happened we would be losing the opportunity to show how people of different races can work together.

"I was told by a woman that I was Euro-Bermudian and she was Afro-Bermudian.

And when the PLP say the blacks in the UBP are not black but coloured, it is the same corrosive and divisive influence.

"Unless we in Bermuda make a careful study of how the world is going we will not be able to get the ship of state in the right direction.'' Dr. Stubbs believes that bad parenting and children having children are probably worse problems than the "ravage of drugs.'' Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira was annoyed at earlier comments that he was not in the House of Assembly. Dr. Terceira said: "It does not mean they are not listening. It is on the radio. It is unfair to draw attention to the fact that someone is not here and they do not care. Everyone in this chamber cares.'' He stressed he was going to concentrate on educational matters. He pointed out that studies have proved that the greatest influences on life are from birth to five years old.

Dr. Terceira said: "By January we will catering to over 50 percent of four-year-olds in Government schools.'' The Minister said he was giving particular importance to nursery children's after day care for working mothers.

The 18 primary schools in Bermuda took the California Achievement Test and Bermudian youngsters topped North America. Dr. Terceira said: "I would put our primary schools up against any in the world.'' He said the restructuring of the education system would continue and the Attorney General's Chambers was working on the new Education Act which he would bring to the House by the third term of the electoral year.

Mainstreaming, he said, had not been rushed and was a success according to the people involved.

Dr. Terceira believed Bermuda's middle schools would catch students as they reach the difficult period of adolescence and help them build self-esteem without the influence of older children.

He agreed with Ms Smith that students at the Roberts Avenue campus of Bermuda College were working under unfair conditions, but he said spending money there would not make economic sense. He believes the complete changeover should only take another three years.

The Minister called for the support of parents to help teachers and students to continue to set high standards.

Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan congratulated speaker the Hon. Ernest DeCouto for the patient way he had handled the four day debate on the Throne Speech.

Sir John said he was pleased at how the debate had gone and it would help people in the Country see the standpoint of each individual MP.

However when the Premier called for a united House of Assembly to show solidarity to the young people in the Country he was met with roars of disapproval from the Opposition benches.

He said: "We must ask our people as they watch TV and read the news to not only share in the democracy of our Country but to share in the democracy of the world.

"They must share in the commitments of our country and share in our vision.'' As he praised PLP speaker Mr. Marc Telemaque for his recent speech about the problems facing youth, PLP MPs again heckled from the other side of the chamber.

However Sir John said he had been saddened by statements from Mr. Ottiwell Simmons about UBP members being "coloured'' while the PLP are black.

He said: "When I go to Casemates or the Prison Farm I do not see a lot of whites. The people responsible are getting the message across to their young people.

"I hold the PLP equally responsible for what is going on because they have ducked their responsibilities.

"I hold out the olive branch, if Mr. Wade wants to walk with me and hold hands in the middle of the floor we will walk for this Country together.

"Then we will send out clear messages to our people and stop sending out confused messages stating that the blame always belongs somewhere else.''