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CHAPTER XV. 
question depends primarily on whether Government is able to assist, for 
the cost involved is the crux of the whole position. 
Government Action, 
We have already stressed the necessity for the formation of a 
Ministry of Health in each province and for the passing of a comprehen- 
sive Public Health Act. By the passing of suitable legislative measures 
Government would find themselves in a much stronger position to deal 
with the present impasse and would be able to enforce action on local 
authorities who were unwilling to respond. For the control of housing, 
the Ministry of Health should lay down minimum standards in regard 
to floor and cubic space, ventilation and lighting, and these standards 
should be incorporated by all local authorities in their building bye-laws. 
The provision of water supplies, drainage systems and latrines for work- 
ing class housing schemes should also be governed by regulations drawn up 
by the Ministry. Without these necessary safeguards, new housing 
schemes would speedily reproduce the very conditions they were intended 
to remove. The preparation and issue of model bye-laws by the Ministry 
of Health would be of great assistance to local authorities, and Govern- 
ments should insist on their adoption, with modifications necessitated by 
local conditions, within a specified period. In order to assist employers 
and others desirous of building working class houses, Public Health De- 
partments should also prepare plans, with approximate costs, of different 
types of houses, and be available for advice, thus preventing expenditure 
on schemes which do not conform to recognised health standards. 
We suggest that, in future, type-plans should provide more than the 
single room which for so long has been considered adequate for the 
average worker. The addition of a small room for storing utensils and 
for cooking and washing should be considered a necessity rather than, as 
at present, a luxury, and a verandah in front would give the worker and 
his family the much appreciated privacy so seldom obtained at present. 
Similarly, plans of approved types of latrines should be made available, 
and no housing scheme should be considered complete unless a sufficient 
number of sanitary conveniences are included. 
Town Planning Acts. 
Consideration must now be given to some of the additional 
legislative measures which Governments might use to secure further 
advance. The Town Planning Act is a British legislative measure which 
has proved of considerable value in the development of housing schemes. 
So far, the Madras Presidency is the only province which has placed such 
an Act on the statute book, but apparently there has been considerable 
reluctance on the part of municipal councils #0 make use of the 
powers conferred by it, whilst the Provincial Town Planning Fund, the 
creation of which is provided for in the Act, has not yet been constituted. 
It is true that extension schemes have been planned in Madras City and 
in one or two other towns ; in several municipal areas civic surveys have 
been considered or undertaken, but so far little or no amelioration of the 
housing conditions has been effected. If the present Act is ineffective,