WHILE hundreds of thousands of visitors trek to Harrison’s Cave annually to marvel at its spectacular beauty, a family is being taxed for some of the land it stands on.
The Smith family whose mother Eloise Smith, owned the land to the west of the cave, complained that successive governments have taken up most of their land to develop the cave, yet they were still required to pay land tax every year.
Daughter Monica Smith recently returned to Barbados trying to get this anomaly rectified with the land tax department but returned to her home in the United States once more disappointed.
Her brother, Victor Smith, a shop keeper of Parish Land, Christ Church has become so frustrated with the process that he stopped paying the taxes, after consulting with four attorneys over the years.
Monica explained that her mother, who died 22 years ago, owned one acre, one rod, three perches of land at Welchman Hall, St Thomas, where she raised her family of nine children. Her small chattel house still remains on the land.
However, Smith said with the children moving away from the area, successive governments continued to utilise sections of their land without notification or compensation to them.
For instance, she pointed out that the cave’s maintenance office was built on a portion of their land as well as part of the car park at Harrison’s Cave. Another portion was used to plant trees and flowers while according to her: “the elevator is right on the cliff belonging to my mother.”
She recalled that former Prime Minister Errol Barrow paid her mother $4 000 for a section which was acquired in the 1970s.
“It was three people’s land – Mr Marshall, Sturges Plantation, and my mother’s. They pull down Sturges Plantation right down on my mother’s land and they pull down Mr Marshall’s on my mother’s land and cover up everything. You can’t see no line mark – you can’t see anything,” she cried.
“When Owen Arthur came in they claimed the whole land,” Monica charged, pointing out that she visited an office in Sturges whichwhich was dealing with the Cave.
“I asked them how could you take the land without acquiring it. I mean if Government want it they could take it but let us know,” she said, pointing out that she got no answers.
Smith said the most unfortunate thing was that they have not been able to fulfill their mother’s will. She divided the land among some of her children and grandchildren.
“This is where I was raised with my siblings. We were over here by ourselves – not another soul was around us. It was very good memories,” she smiled.
Of the cave she fondly recalled that it used to be called cave gully and every Good Friday the boys in the neighbourhood would go into it with lanterns to listen to the organ playing at Holy Innocents Church.
Her brother Victor Smith, who is the executor of his mother’s will said he hired two attorneys, David Thompson, who later became Prime Minister and Freundel Stuart, who is now Prime Minister, to assist him in this matter since he was still paying land tax for the land.
He recalled that one day he received word that construction work was taking place on his mother’s land and he went to Welchman Hall where he saw a bulldozer clearing a section of the land.
“I went to Mr Thompson and he wrote Cynthia Forde, the parliamentary representative asking her to explain what was going on”.
He said it was then that he stopped paying the land tax. “I was so vex I tell them I ain’t paying another cent.”
When contacted, Forde said she was assured that there was money in the budget to assist those people who had to be compensated for the acquisition of their land for the development of Harrison’s Cave.
“I have a Parliamentary question in about the cave and the compensation, especially now that they say they are going to turn it over to a private entity for management,” she said.
mariabradshaw@nationnews.com
