rights when they reach 18.

Although the voting age was cut from 21 to 18 after the last election, under-21s are still banned from many other activities.

They must wait until they are 21 before they can legally take out a car loan or drive a heavy truck, for instance.

Almost 70 laws, hunted out by legal experts, reveal a huge list of similar restrictions.

Apparently believing young people are more mature these days, Ministers are proposing to cut the "age of majority'', which marks the beginning of adult legal responsibility.

It should be 18 instead of 21, they say.

The Hon. Sir John Sharpe, head of a Cabinet committee looking into the subject, said he knew of an 18-year-old Police cadet who wanted to get a car loan.

She was willing to pay her total salary, nearly $1,600 a month, into the bank against the loan.

But she was told she would have to get her mother to guarantee the loan because she was under 21 and could not sign such a contract.

Sir John said a few laws would be kept with an age limit of 21. For example, regulations said a person in charge of a nursery should be 21.

"The committee takes the view that anyone under the age of 21 is unlikely to be sufficiently mature to assume full responsibility for infants in day nurseries and nursery schools and the present age will, therefore, remain unchanged.'' A law which subsidises hospital insurance for full-time students under 21 would stay unchanged too.

"The committee believes that such individuals should not be burdened by concerns about hospital insurance during a critical period of their development.'' Sir John said Government's plans were now being considered by the lawyers' body the Bermuda Bar Association.

The UBP election platform gives a commitment to "reducing the age of majority to 18 thus promoting full participation by young people in our society''.

VOTERS VOT