➥ Loading Saint Helena Island Info

*

*

Important Information

Legal and technical

Treat others as you would like to be treated.{a}

Please read carefully before using Saint Helena Island Info

Website Use

PLEASE READ ALL OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. BY ACCESSING THIS WEBSITE YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BELOW. THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. WE WILL NOTIFY AMENDMENTS TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BY POSTING THEM TO THE WEBSITE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, PLEASE CEASE ACCESS TO THIS WEBSITE.

Below: Website ownershipPurpose of the websiteConditions of accessExternal LinksPrivacy Policy and Data ProtectionDisclaimersPersonal OpinionJurisdiction

Website ownership

This website is owned and edited by John Turner, an individual operating under the laws of St Helena, who is the author of this work for the purposes of the Berne Convention and all national laws giving effect thereto.

Purpose of the website

This website aims to provide Internet users with information regarding the Island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. The website is for consultation only and does not allow transactions of any kind to be carried out. Unless explicitly stated otherwise the information provided on this website must not be construed as forming all or any part of a contract.

Conditions of access

It is your responsibility to ensure that you are legally authorised to access this website in the location from which the connection is made. Access to any products and services described on this website may be prohibited for certain people in certain locations. It shall be the responsibility of the interested party to determine in advance that his status permits him to subscribe to services or products presented on the site, for example by consulting his usual advisers. The Website Owner shall not be held liable for any decision taken on the basis of information provided on this site, nor for the use that may be made thereof by third parties. Any person who wishes to benefit from any services or products presented on this site should consult the contractual terms and conditions applicable to these services or products, which are available at the operating locations of The Website Owner.

Please Note You may be routed outside this website when you click on a hypertext link{1}. The Website Owner makes reasonable endeavours to ensure that external links from this site are valid and contain useful information but declines all responsibility for the contents encountered or damage incurred when visiting websites to which you are directed by external links on this website. Visits to other websites are made entirely at your own risk.

Privacy Policy and Data Protection

No personal data is collected by The Website Owner from this website. If you believe that any information on this website infringes, or may infringe, your privacy or data protection rights please contact us immediately.

PRIVACY NOTICE: The website does not collect or store any personal data from you. If any data is collected or stored by our web host this is outside our control - please consult names.co.uk. We also use tools provided by third parties; if any data is collected or stored by these third parties this is outside our control. This site does not collect any personal data from users, and does not allow users to make any financial transactions, so an SSL Certificate (https://) is not required (see also Technical Information).

Disclaimers

The Website Owner declines all responsibility for any errors or omissions on this website or for any failure of performance. You must not treat the contents of this website as definitive or exhaustive. Please also note that the data on this website are not updated in real time. You are responsible for verifying that any data on this website (financial and otherwise) are accurate and current. The confidentiality of Internet communications is not guaranteed. Any information you transmit or receive via this system is at your own risk. Although aiming always to maintain the highest standards of virus protection, The Website Owner declines all responsibility for any damage (loss, modification, etc.) caused by viruses transmitted as a result of viewing this website.

Personal Opinion

All data presented on this website shall be deemed in law to be the personal opinion of The Website Owner, and hence is protected by Section 17 (‘Protection of freedom of expression’) of the Constitution of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha 2009.

Opinions quoted on this site are not necessarily those of The Website Owner.

Where legal matters are discussed please be aware that this website is only providing a Layman’s Opinion. You should not take any action based on what you read on this website without first consulting a qualified legal professional.

Jurisdiction

This website is subject to the laws of St Helena. Any disputes arising will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the St Helena legal system.

Copyright

Our Copyright

Except as explicitly stated otherwise all contents of the Saint Helena Island Info website, including the Saint Helena Island Info Logo, are Copyright © John Turner and subject to the provisions of international intellectual property laws. You are therefore not authorised to copy, pass on, modify or use in any way whatsoever, whether freely or with charge, the contents of this website (in whole or in part), for any purposes other than those laid down by The Website Owner, without the prior written authorisation of The Website Owner. Any information provided in IFRAMEs is Copyright to the originators.

Notwithstanding the above:

You are encouraged to quote from Saint Helena Island Info. All we require is an attribution which identifies http://sainthelenaisland.info/ as the source (or, better, the URL of the page from which you are quoting) (Please see our page Link To Us for help with linking and see Link To Us for information on crediting copied content). You do not need to ask our explicit permission as long as these requirements are followed. If you cannot meet these requirements but still wish to reproduce our content please contact us.

And please feel free to share our content using Social Media

Material we have used

Information is reproduced here for educational non-commercial use only; all copyrights are acknowledged. Excerpts fall within the doctrine of ‘fair use’.

Information and images presented on this site are gleaned from many sources, mostly on the Internet but all in the public domain. Acknowledgement is offered to:

Some images are sourced from the Wikipedia (and related projects) and are used under the Creative Commons Licence{2} Creative Commons Licence logo @@E@@.

We source some images and other content from the Internet, but only from public domain sources and we always respect copyright where asserted. If you think we have breached your copyright or used your copyrighted material without your permission please contact us and we will advise on how access our ‘Alleged Breach of Copyright’ procedure.

Warnings

Warning triangle

Below: Warning: videosWarning: activitiesWarning: images

Warning: videos

Please Note Playing a video may involve downloading material from outside Saint Helena Island Info. The Website Owner makes reasonable endeavours to ensure that external links from this site are valid and contain useful information but declines all responsibility for the contents encountered or damage incurred when visiting websites to which you are directed by external links on this website. Visits to other websites are made entirely at your own risk.

If the video does not play it may be that it has been deleted or moved - please let us know.

Warning: activities

You participate in any activities described herein entirely at your own risk.

Warning: images

The Website Owner does not guarantee that all images used on this site are suitable for viewing by children of all ages or that all images are permitted in all jurisdictions.

Accessibility Statement

We are committed to making Saint Helena Island Info’s content accessible and user friendly to everyone.

If you are having difficulty viewing or navigating the content on this website, or notice any content, feature, or functionality that you believe is not fully accessible to people with disabilities, please contact us (email: with Disabled Access in the subject line). Please provide a description of the specific feature you feel is not fully accessible, or a suggestion for improvement.

We take your feedback seriously and will consider it as we evaluate ways to accommodate all of our customers and our overall accessibility policies.

The above complies with the requiremts of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (USA) and other equivalent legislation.

Technical Information

Below: SSL CertificateStandards ConformanceEncodingUsabilityBrowser TestingSite IndexError PageWork In ProgressJavascript‘Cookies’LocalStorageSite FilesSite MaintenanceAccess from Mobile DevicesOther

SSL Certificate

This site does not collect any personal data from users, and does not allow users to make any financial transactions, so an SSL Certificate (https://) is not required.

Standards Conformance

Pages on this site are delivered as HTML5, for feature comatibility with all modern browsers.

Encoding

Pages on this site are encoded in utf-8.

Usability

This site uses Cascading Style Sheets. You can therefore control text size and colours using your web browser. Please refer to the documentation for your web browser for further information.

Images are normally limited to a maximum dimension of 10000 pixels but maps and diagrams are permitted to be larger.

Please contact us to report any usability problems, specifying as much technical information (OS, browser version, etc.) as possible.
Thank you.

Browser Testing

StatCounter browser usage

Features are tested using: ⋅ Chrome Browser logo @@E@@Google Chrome™; ⋅ Firefox Browser logoFirefox™; and ⋅ Opera Browser logoOpera™{4}. All features should work in these browsers but some may not work in others. Read about browsers here.

Site Index

A full site index appears here.

Error Page

Unresolved URLs are directed here: Error Page

Work In Progress

*

Please Note Some pages on this site may be under construction and that these pages may not yet work fully as advertised. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

We welcome feedback, so please contact us with your comments on our work so far.

Javascript

Javascript logo

Javascript is a technology that allows websites to display dynamic content, e.g. date-based or user-selected displays. Saint Helena Island Info makes use of Javascript to deliver useful content so please be aware that some features described will only work if you have Javascript enabled in your browser.

‘Cookies’

This site does not use ‘cookies’. However, the third-party products (e.g. Google™) used on this site may employ cookies, outside our control.

Note that this site does use the Javascript feature localStorage to retain parameters, as set on our page Configure This Site, which can be accessed from anywhere with the icon - see the Control Icons (top, right).

localStorage

Configuration parameters (accessed with the icon - see the Control Icons (top, right)) are stored in your browser using the Javascript facility ‘localStorage’. While this is in some ways similar to using ‘Cookies’ we do not use it to store any information about you, about your browser or about the Device you use, so it does not compromise your privacy.

Site Files

Site Maintenance

This site was created and is maintained for us by Burgh House Media crest @@E@@Burgh House Media Productions (part of Burgh House crest @@E@@Burgh House Limited), to whom all technical queries may be directed.

Access from Mobile Devices

This site should be fully accessible from any mobile Device with a usable screen width of at least 600px{5}. Around ¼ of our users connect with mobile Devices.

Other

This site was last updated on 27 February 2024.

See also: ⋅ Page History ⋅ Updated This Release

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.{b}

Read More

Article: Ask a lawyer

An incumbent Public Solicitor took to publishing articles in the St Helena newspapers. This, from 18th June 2010, is an example{2}

‘Ask a lawyer’ banner

Question: I usually carry a knife which I use for all sorts of things like sharpening pencils or if I go fishing. I have now been told that I am not allowed to carry it. Is this true?

Answer: Well, (here we go again) it depends. You can never carry an offensive weapon, which is something which was made or adapted to cause injury. ‘Made to cause injury’ would be something like a bayonet. ‘Adapted’ is not so obvious. I started my legal working life in the East End of London just after the Kray Brothers had been convicted (yes I really am that old) and it was rough and dangerous. There was a nasty habit of getting an old cut throat razor and binding its handle with tape so that it became a rigid slashing knife - they were excellent steel and very very sharp and it turned from a gentleman’s shaving tool into a vicious weapon.

Most items like kitchen knives however have a perfectly good use but there are severe restrictions upon when they can be carried outside your home. It is an offence to carry any ‘bladed or pointed article’ which covers a lot of items. One case decided that a butter knife with no sharpened edge and no point was a ‘bladed article’ although a screwdriver wasn’t. A penknife is OK as long as the blade is no longer than 3 inches but it must be ‘foldable at all times’ a blade that locks will be a ‘bladed article’ however short the blade.

Hang on a minute, I hear you shout. Does that mean that the sheaf knife I have used for fishing for years has to go in the dustbin? No, but if you have it with you in a public place, you had better have a good reason. Going down to the wharf to do some fishing is OK as is going home but beware of stopping for a beer on the way as you may no longer have a ‘good reason’ to carry the knife. Oh yes and even your penknife with a tiny 2 inch blade can be an offensive weapon if you are carrying it with the intent of using it on someone! The best advice is therefore leave knives at home and only carry them if you can prove you have a really good purpose for doing so - carrying a pruning knife if you are a gardener and need it immediately is alright but not carrying a knife if you think perhaps you might want to cut some cheese for lunch!

So why is the law so stupid? Well it is because knives are dangerous weapons and if you have one in your pocket and a few cans in your stomach and someone attacks you then you might get the knife out to defend yourself or frighten them off and the next thing you know is that someone is dead and two lives are destroyed - yours and the deceased. Not so stupid maybe?

Question: What do you think about the new media bill?

Answer: I am disturbed by it. At the end of the day human history has shown that a free press that is not frightened to show up mistakes or dishonesty is an essential part of democracy. This is especially true in a country which has chosen, for reasons I fail to understand, to deliberately exclude the Freedom of Information Act and where the default mode sometimes seems to be keeping things quiet. There is of course a danger in an overly free press. It can publish articles, editorials or letters which can seriously affect the lives of individuals and damage their right to privacy and I have seen some letters published that have saddened me on behalf of the individuals attacked - and generally individuals in no position to fight back. So yes a decent media code to provide guidelines and yes please do give it some teeth but don’t create a shark which is capable of being controlled like the huge white shark model in Jaws! I find the suggestion that the Governor should appoint the St Helena Media Commission (SHMC) (and theoretically could dismiss it if the SHMC does not punish a publication that has upset him) totally unacceptable. I am not suggesting that the current Governor would misuse the power for a moment but in principle to give those in power the ability to control the press is the sort of thing that might delight the heart of Kim Jong-il in North Korea! Then to give the right to fine huge sums totally out of scale with the powers of the Magistrates and the power simply to close the press down at a stroke without even the right for a hearing (apparently except for financial penalties) is horrific. Fortunately any such law will breach the Constitution in such a basic way (Section 10(10) for those who like to look things up as you are now guaranteed a fair trial in things like this) and don’t tell me that that will all be sorted out in Regulations - it is fundamental and proper protection must be written in.

Ask any of your Magistrates and they will tell you how very difficult it is to balance the rights and wrongs in a trial. They have training and experience and can draw on centuries of experience in enforcing the criminal law against a background where those charged are innocent until proven guilty beyond doubt. And here is a bill wanting to give the ability to impose swinging fines and close enterprises down to the great and the good who (apart from two magistrate members) have no such training and decide ‘guilt’ on a ‘we think it more likely than not’ basis and without always having to have a hearing. So given the limited resources to get proper training for your magistrates this bill suggests creating a new ‘court’ without the traditional protections and obviously untrained unless you throw a lot of money at training.

Oh yes and in case the inadequacies of the system become obvious on appeal, let’s limit appeals to Judicial Review. This is a ‘smoke and mirrors’ appeal that sounds good. Oh well you can appeal to the Supreme Court. What may not be realised is that this particular appeal is not ‘on the merits’ - in other words for the Supreme Court to make a judgement on what is fair and right - but means you can only win the appeal if you can prove that the SHMC was so wrong it could not reasonably have reached that conclusion. This would be an almost impossible burden as drawn the bill means any publisher or broadcaster can have their business closed down without even the right to be heard on the original complaint and with no effective appeal.

What I suppose I am saying is that the ‘C’ in SHMC should not stand for ‘Control’. My view, to answer the question, is that the bill as drawn (although intended to meet a real need that a voluntary code has simply not achieved) is so horrid and objectionable that it should be a matter of ‘back to the drawing board’ guys and let’s find a fair way of doing it that both protects both press freedom from control and restriction and individuals from being wrongfully damaged by press pillory.

Question: I hear you are going on leave. Will the Chickens be OK?

Answer: Well actually I had to apply to them for leave. They had already decided that they could take over the job of Public Solicitor pointing out that they have been Lay Advocates for some time. I thought it would be quite helpful until I found Portia rewriting WOCO as the Welfare of Chickens Ordinance with fundamental freedoms for fowls in pride of place coupled with stiff penalties (including mandatory £10,000 fines and automatic loss of licence) for using eggs for culinary purposes - ‘eggs have rights too’.

In fact a kind neighbour is doing essential hen-care. I am actually more concerned about what happens to clients (actual and potential) without a public solicitor. The traditional (non hen) Lay Advocates are of course the first point of call but I have made it absolutely clear that I would expect to be contacted (and if necessary in the middle of the night) if there was any really serious matter. Aldhelm Garner is also in post as Assistant to the Public Solicitor and will be in contact with me should the need arise. It is interesting that when a lawyer from the AG’s department is away then a locum is brought in but as far as I know this has never happened for the Public Solicitor and indeed I think I detected some sighs of relief that ‘That Nuisance’ was going to be out of their hair for a bit!

LOL

Credits:
{a} The Golden Rule{b} Stephen Hawking

@@FNCRRETADV@@

Footnotes:
{1} At the time of writing there were links to unique external sites.{2} @@RepDis@@{3} The four ‘Wirebird’ publications should not be confused.{4} We used to test with Internet Explorer™ but as at June 2021 this has been discontinued by Microsoft™ and has few users. We’d be happy to test on Safari™ but we have no Apple™ Devices and Apple™ does not release a Windows™ version of Safari™. We do limited testing on Microsoft Edge™ but as it now uses the Chrome Browser logo @@E@@Google Chrome™ engine we assume anything that works on Chrome Browser logo @@E@@Google Chrome™ will work on Edge™.{5} In fact it seems to work with a screen as small as 300px wide, but firstly we don’t guarantee that this will always be the case and secondly the layout at such low resolutions is not optimal.

@@FNCRRETADV@@