The St Helena Government UK Representative will be working from a new London based office with effect from Monday 1 September.

The office was previously based in Wimpole Street in the West End of Central London but this premises is no longer available.

UK Representative Kedell Worboys has secured new office space at 7 Portland Place, which is still in the West End. Commenting on the location of this building, Kedell said: "The building, which has just been refurbished is in a prime location. It is about a five minute walk from Oxford Circus underground station and just across the road from BBC buildings. The office space is slightly smaller than what we currently have but the building offers excellent facilities. These include meeting room with telephone conferencing which can be hired, a manned reception and waiting area."

The UK Representative took advantage of the Reading Sports to distribute leaflets informing St Helenians in the UK about the new location of her office, and since telephone numbers have also changed, arrangements have been made with BT for a recorded message to be put on the current telephone number directing callers to the new number, this service will be in operation for a month. A mail redirection service has also been requested for a three month period.

The new contact details for the UK Representative are as follows:

St Helena Government UK Office

7 Portland Place

London W1P 1PP

Telephone: 0207 031 0314

Fax: 0207 031 0315

The United Nations has published its 16^th report on the elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The Report contains information on St Helena as the Island has signed up to the Convention.

Generally, the report contains information on what countries have been doing in order to comply with the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. When submitting information to the United Nations, like other countries who have signed up, St Helena has to show that it is firmly committed to eliminating any form of racial discrimination which might exist on the Island. St Helena has to submit a report on this every two years so that the United Nations is able to see that the Island is moving in the right direction and is not acting in contravention of the convention.

The St Helena Government has also placed copies of the Report in the Library at Prince Andrew School for the benefit of students.

Each year a fair amount of fresh fruit is imported for the people of the Island and in addition to this fresh fruit, canned and dried versions are also imported. In earlier years fruit was in abundance on the Island, and the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department is hoping that this can happen again.

Under the new subsidy policy, which came into force on Monday 4 August, the A&NRD hopes to help farmers with fruit production. For the next two years, wage subsidy will continue for fruit producers. The hours that fruit producers can claim will be reduced to a maximum of 46 per week and a minimum of 15. But by the third year wage subsidy will be dropped and payment will be made per kilogram for high quality fruit that is produced and sold. The price will be decided upon depending on the sales rate at the time and fruit farmers will have to meet the Department’s criteria in order to qualify for this subsidy.

"One of the objectives of the policy is to give existing and potential fruit farmers the opportunity to develop local fruit production of higher quality and on a wider scale," said Wendy Clingham, Chief Agriculture and Natural Resources Officer. She added: "fruit production is one of the areas where research has determined that there is a growing market but production cannot meet the demand." The department is hoping to rectify this by encouraging farmers to produce more fruit.

In terms of long-term development, the department hopes that some day, the Island will be producing sufficient fruit to supply the Island as well as having some for export, although a lot of work needs to be done before this can happen.

A few years ago A&NRD imported high quality citrus planting material from Spain and from this, citrus orchards have been established at Scotland and at Sandy Bay. There are now propagation units at, Half Tree Hollow and at Scotland and once these are well established, the department will be able to produce its own fruit trees for sale to members of the public instead of having to import.

Trees in the orchard include: oranges, lemons, tangerines, grapefruit, rough lemon, Troyer Citrange and others. Commenting on this Wendy said: "Now that the parent stock has been established, the way forward is to supply good planting material to or through farmer orientated programmes and provide the relevant training in grafting and general fruit management." Besides the citrus fruits, other fruits will be included in the fruit programmes.

Biological control agents were introduced in 1997 to control the pest problem and this is something that the department continues to work on. In addition, leaflets are available on how to produce good fruit and the Department continues to provide advice on growing fruit.

Out of the ten parties who expressed an interest in operating a public transport system five submitted their proposals, in the form of a tender, to SHG. Overall, this is considered to be a good result.

The St Helena Government’s Tender Board, met earlier this week to register the public transport tenders.

The tenders will now be evaluated by a group consisting of representatives from the Office of the Chief Secretary, the Finance Department, the St Helena Development Agency and the Transport Division of the Public Works and Services Department, headed by the Government Economist.

The results of the evaluation exercises will then be submitted to the Tender Board for a decision. It is hoped that the evaluation process will begin this week.