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ficates, and not merely to produce them. Clause 3 (3) provides that the holding of a certificate under the Midwives Act, 1902, shall be a qualification for being certified in the Colony.

4. Section 4 of the present Ordinance provides that the Board shall consist of the Principal Civil Medical Officer, the Superintendent of the Alice Memorial Mater- nity Hospital, the lady doctor attached to the same, and three other persons to be nominated by the Governor. The trouble about sections in this form is that they sometimes become inconvenient when circumstances change. For example, the particular hospital mentioned might close, or might be amalgamated with another hospital, or it might happen that the superintendent of that hospital might be only a subordinate to the super- intendent of the general group of Alice hospitals, or there might be more than one lady doctor attached to the hospital in question. Clause 4 of the bill therefore, proposes to substitute a sub-section (1) which will pro- vide that the Board shall consist of the Principal Civil Medical Officer as chairman and five other persons appointed by the Governor. The present intention is to continue to appoint to the Board the superintendent of the Alice Memorial Maternity Hospital and a lady doctor attached to that hospital. The present section makes the term of office of the nominated members three years, and it gives no power to cancel any appoint- ment. This might be inconvenient. It might be desir- able, and will be desirable under the new sub-section, to have power to appoint a medical practitioner for so long as he may continue to hold a particular appoint- ment. The proposed new sub-section gives this power. It also gives the Governor power to cancel any appoint- ment. This latter power might be used where an appointed member had left the Colony.

5. Section 7 of the present Ordinance provides that the secretary of the Board shall have the custody of the roll. It is considered that it would be more convenient if the Principal Civil Medical Officer had the custody of the roll. Accordingly, the section is amended by clause 5 of the bill so as to provide that the Principal Civil Medical Officer, or such person as he shall appoint, shall have the custody of the roll.

6. Clause 6 repeals s. 11 of the Ordinance which provides that offences may be prosecuted by the Secre- tary of the Midwives Board. This is unnecessary because any person has the right to prosecute under the Ordinance, and if the object of the section was that offences should be prosecuted by the secretary only, that is an object which should not have been aimed at, and the section has not achieved it.

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19th May, 1926.

J. H. KEMP,

Attorney General.