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CHAPTER XXII, 
the matters in respect of which they were empowered to issue regulations. 
We have endeavoured to outline these in the preceding paragraphs. 
Certain of them are of such essential importance that the provincial 
Government should be armed with sufficient power to ensure that the 
Boards prescribe adequate standards. Within this category we would 
place— 
(@) the provision of drinking water ; 
(b) the provision of conservancy, sanitation and drainage; 
(c) the provision of medical facilities ; and 
{d) the prescribing of minimum standards of new housing accom- 
modation. 
We contemplate that, in respect of these matters, the draft regulations 
of a Board would be submitted to the provincial Government in the 
Ministry of Public Health, which should have the option of approving 
bhem or referring them back with suggestions for modifications. On the 
re-submission of the regulations, Government should be able either to 
approve them or to modify them in such manner as it thinks fit. In the 
avent of the failure of the Board to make any appropriate regulations, 
Government, after giving the Board due warning, could issue the 
necessary regulations. In respect of other matters also, the power to 
‘ssue regulations should, we think, be subject to the approval of the 
provincial Government; and in this case up to a point the procedure 
should be similar, i.e., Government would have the power to refer the 
draft regulations back to the Board with suggestions for their amend- 
ment. But, if the Board were not prepared to accept these suggestions, 
Government should not have the power to modify or supersede their 
regulations, but merely to approve or to reject them in their final form. 
In respect of matters of this kind, we contemplate that the scrutiny of 
Government would be directed first to ensuring that the Board was not 
exceeding its powers and secondly towards assisting it by constructive 
suggestions for its consideration. 
Other Powers of Government. 
Government should also have the power, through its inspectors, 
of instituting prosecutions of persons defaulting against any of the 
regulations, whether issued by the Board or by Government. Where an 
inspector considered a prosecution desirable, he would submit the pro- 
posal in the first instance to the Board and not to Government, and the 
power of Government should only be invoked after the Board had refused 
bo prosecute and where it was clear that there were no sufficient grounds 
for such refusal. These reserve powers will enable Government, where 
necessary, to intervene without resort to the ultimate power (which it 
should also possess) of superseding a Board altogether. The aim of 
Government should be to assist and encourage the Boards in every way 
possible, and to limit the use of its reserve powersto cases where a Board 
had definitely failed. We think that in practice Government will not find 
ib necessary to interfere, but the. powers we have suggested should be 
sufficient to ensure that unduly lax standards are not adopted by particular