THE WATER SUri'LV OF K I N(;WILLI AMSTOWN. I99 



beincr also about 50 yards; so far, all that has been necessary 

 has been to put four clips en the ])ipe : but should it get worse, 

 It is the intention of the author to deal with it in the same way 

 as the section near the dam. namely, by covering it with reinforced 

 concrete. This short section of pipe line is in particularly bad 

 ground, as the kloof is crossed higher up by a dolorite dvke. and 

 where the pipe line crosses there is a deposit of black soil formed 

 from the weathering dolorite. together with a good deal of lime, 

 fcrming white nodules and incrustations, in and on the surface 

 of the soil. The remainder of the pipe line has given no trouble 

 whatsoever, and shown very little signs of corrosion. 



The accompanying photographs .(Plates XI, XU) show the 

 Impounding Dam at the Perie. and the cantilever suspension 

 bridge carrying the 15-inch pipe across the Buffalo River. 



SUICIDE FROM A LEGAL AND ETHICAL 

 POINT OF VIEW. 



By G. T. MoRicE, B.A., K.C. 



Read July 9, 1919. 



Most of the acts treated as serious crimes by law are also 

 strongly condemned by morality. Thus murder, assault, robbery, 

 theft, fraud, are not only crimes in the eye of the law, but are also 

 from an ethical point of view, evil deeds. It is true that this 

 does not altogether apply to political offences, such as trea.son 

 and sedition, which are regarded as heinous crimes by law, 

 though not involving moral depravity. But those offences, 

 threatening as they do the stability of society, are of such a 

 dangerous character that most persons will agree that thev should 

 be treated with severity by the law. In the case of suicide, how- 

 ever, there is a wide gulf between public opinion and law — at 

 least, English law. The two seem to belong, as it were, to 

 different strata of civilisation. 



The English law on the subject is clear; the "trumpet gives 

 forth no uncertain sound." Suicide is a felony, that is. one of 

 those heinous crimes, including murder, rape, burglary, which 

 found a place in the simple code of our ancestors, and were 

 generally punished by death and confiscation of property. The 

 person who killed himself was a felo de sc, a felon as regards 

 himself. In the case of the successful suicide the death penalty 

 could not. of course, be carried out. But the outraged law was 

 not to be baulked of its vengeance, and found a vent for it in 

 the treatment of the corpse of the felon. The borly was buried 

 at midnight, without Christian rites, on the highwav, o-enerally 

 at cross-roads, and with a stake passed through it. There we 



