A law setting up a day's public holiday for National Heroes day in October and scrapping the Queen's birthday holiday from next year was passed yesterday.

Culture and Social Rehabilitation Minister Dale Butler said Bermudians didn't revere enough their own countrymen who had made outstanding contributions, yet other nations knew who their heroes were.

The decision to scrap the Queen's Birthday has attracted 3,412 signatures backing an online petition to keep it as it is.

Mr. Butler said: "Did anyone receive that petition? It's a peculiar situation. I have not had an audience from those who were concerned."

The first national heroes holiday — on October 13 — will be in honour of Dame Lois Browne Evans who Mr. Butler said had produced many firsts including becoming Bermuda's first female lawyer, the first black woman elected to parliament, the first female Attorney General and the first female leader of the Opposition as well as the first female Opposition leader in the Commonwealth.

He explained that the job of picking the subject of the next National Heroes Day would be done by a bipartisan committee.

He denied the choice of October 13 had been chosen because the PGA golf would be on.

He told The Royal Gazette: "It was never, ever mentioned in discussions by the business community or by my parliamentary colleagues and it was something even the Minister of Sport didn't mention.

"I never heard that until we released the date."

However the October choice has attracted controversy from several quarters — from the business community who complained about the loss of a shopping day near Christmas and from Comet racers who use it for their annual showpiece competition.

Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said the new day was inconvenient because in June children were home from college — by October they would be off the island, so a family day had been lost.

Asked why the National Heroes Day had not simply replaced the Queen's Birthday in June Mr. Butler said: "It was felt that we wanted a holiday that was separate and distinct from the colonial holiday that we inherited.

"October is not late, we still have excellent weather in October — should we change Christmas because it's a very cold month in Bermuda? No, of course not."

In the House debate Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin hit out at the lack of consultation over the dates although the Opposition back the idea of a National Heroes day.

She raised the issue of the Comet racing and said: "The Minister gives no justification why October not June. Why can't we have both?"

She said the sailing community had already been snubbed when it was not recognised by Government as one of Bermuda's national sports — now it was losing it's annual big day.

"It's almost like saying we will take away your Cup Match," she said.

Government MP Michael Scott said it was a fallacy to say much was lost by taking away a holiday in June. "It has nothing to do with summering on the beach. We can do that from April to October."

While the PLP were attacking the colonial nature of some of Bermuda's public holidays, Opposition Finance Spokesman Bob Richards said Bermudians had made the holidays into something else with the June holiday being a celebration of Bermuda's national heritage.

John Barritt, opposition Whip said he did not understand why waste energy changing the holiday to October when the Queen's Birthday in June presented a well-established day off.

He said: "We can still have the parade on Sunday and the Heroes' Day on Monday. That's what we did when we transformed Empire Day to Bermuda day."

Government MP Walter Lister said he hoped that when further heroes were picked, Bermuda would reflect back on those such as nurse Alice Scott and Dr. E.A. Cann.

Wayne Furbert, Opposition MP worried that changing heroes from one year to the next may mean they are forgotten and asked how each one could be remembered from year to year.

While Health Minister Nelson Bascome said the concerns about changing the day were overblown and even as a Bermudian himself did not have a problem moving the holiday from June to October.

Minister of Education, Randy Horton said because he was in charge of education on the Island he would ensure that the legacy of each honoured hero would be "clearly understood why they are our heroes."

He did not, however, elaborate on how that might be done while Deputy Premier Paula Cox spoke about Pilot James 'Jemmy' Darrell who is part of a Bermuda Archives exhibition that opened Thursday night.

Saying what this legislation would do is bring about "hope and change" while it could be used to honour Pilot Darrell, a former slave who struggled to change unfair laws.