ROTARY CLUB OF ABACO

December 1998 Table of Contents - Current Issue of The Abaco Journal - Abaco Bahamas' Home Page

ROTARY CLUB OF ABACO

The Rotary Club of Abaco's speaker for 2nd November was Attorney General of The Bahamas, Hon Tennyson Wells. Mr Wells has declared himself a candidate for party leader of the Free National Movement if Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham decides not to run in the next election.

The Attorney General's remarks covered a wide and general area. "Without Vision, People Perish" was his theme. He placed education as the main priority of the nation and said computer literacy is as important as the three R's. "Funds have already been allocated by government to place computers in every primary school in the country." He encouraged Abaco to make the most of its agricultural and tourism potential. "Abaco," he said, "could easily feed the whole of The Bahamas." It had far more arable land than any other island but how that was to used was up to the citizens of Abaco. Mr Tennyson Wells was once Minister for Agriculture & Fisheries and he noted that Abaco was ideally positioned to export both agricultural and marine products for rapid transshipment to Europe and other international destinations.

In an intriguing statement that brought the matter to the attention of the Abaco public for the first time, Mr Wells said that a future University of The Bahamas may very well be situated on Abaco. "Are you ready for this?" he asked the assembly of over 50 Rotarians and guests at Flippers Restaurant.

In order to deter criminal activity we should all be vigilant and be intolerant of socially aberrant behaviour. People who make a good income and have a good education are far less likely to become criminals, Mr Wells pointed out.

During question time Mr Wells was asked about the backlog of cases in the judicial system. This was a not a new phenomenon, the Attorney General pointed out, either in The Bahamas or the Caribbean. "We have increased the number of lay magistrates... as well as supreme courts and magistrate courts." A new system is in the process of adoption which will assign civil cases to particular judges. These must be expedited in short order and frivolous cases would be thrown out. Many longstanding criminal cases had been nulled where the accused was not at fault in causing the delay of justice and the offences were not major.

Another question from the floor brought up the matter of the main dock for Abaco. Minister Wells said he had visited the prospective sites over the past weekend, including Snake Cay, and it had struck him how rapidly Marsh Harbour was growing. "We must look at least 25 years into the future in making the final decision," Mr Wells noted. "If you put the dock in Marsh Harbour you will need at least 60 acres surrounding it to have viable storage facilities. You must look at least a generation ahead. Creating a dock in Marsh Harbour now might very well mean wasting three or four million dollars of the nation's money. I am sure the businessmen of Marsh Harbour do not want that." He agreed that the new airport was well overdue but did not have details of its present status at hand.

By the year 2025 there will be about 600,000 people in The Bahamas, Mr Wells said. Where are they going to go? New Providence cannot take about 50,000 more than it has at present "otherwise it would sink!" The Family Islands must be developed at a much faster rate. The islands in line to take the brunt of returning and new residents are Grand Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera, Exuma, and perhaps Cat Island and Long Island. Abaco would certainly be top of the list for many people who re-locate.

Mr Wells noted that drug trafficking had increased since the DEA had removed the reconnaissance balloons. He hoped the US government could be persuaded to have them re-installed.

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