Anxious that those in his employ should conform to the new law, Henry Smith, a farmer of Umlaas Road, personally conducted his Natives to the magistracy, Camperdown, on the 17th January. This was but three days before that on which Magistrates had been instructed to begin their collections. The tax was paid. One of the boys thereafter obtained permission to go to his kraal on the pretext that his child was ill. The same evening, about 8 p.m., Smith was standing on his verandah when he heard a shuffling noise by the wall. He thought it was a dog, but saw a Native, who, putting his head round the corner, exclaimed: "Nkosi!" (ordinary form of salute), and handed him an envelope. Turning to read the address by the light of the window, Smith was at once stabbed by the Native with an assegai and mortally wounded. Circumstantial evidence led at the trial proved that the boy who got permission to go home was the one who had committed the murder. He was convicted. Apart from having been induced to pay the poll tax, no other motive for the murder could be discovered. That Smith was a good master was abundantly proved by the testimony of his other servants. The following significant incident occurred at Mapumulo on the 22nd January. The Magistrate (Mr. R.E. Dunn) proceeded to Allan's store, some 9 miles from the magistracy, to collect the poll tax as previously arranged. Shortly after his arrival, a Chief, Ngobizembe, came up with about 100 men, each armed with several sticks and some carrying shields. These sticks and shields they placed beside them as they sat in the presence of the Magistrate.[93] On the latter saying that he had come to collect the tax, all exclaimed: "We won't pay!" Some 200 other members of the same tribe, the largest in the district, now approached Dunn from behind, chanting a song as they advanced. They were dressed in their war dress, and fully armed with shields, knobsticks and ordinary sticks. As they failed to accord the customary salute, their Chief remarked, "Why don't you salute?" "Why should we? We shan't!" they roared in reply. They then sat down, practically encircling the Magistrate and the three European and six Native police who were with him. Many of the Natives who wore hats did not remove them. The Magistrate again stated why he had come, and was about to make other remarks when all present, as with one voice, shouted him down with "Shut up! we refuse to pay!" In spite of further efforts to bring them to reason, the men became more and more uproarious and unruly. Their shouting became 'terrific.' They got up, danced about and gesticulated with their sticks in that defiant manner which only Natives are capable of doing, a form of effrontery indicative of trouble. They eventually came close up to the Magistrate and his staff from the rear, as if contemplating assault. Only by the Chief and some of the older men vigorously using their sticks, could they be made to fall back.