The rank and file of some 4,700 prisoners were tried by their respective Magistrates and by Judges. The great majority of sentences ran from six months to two years, with whipping added. A few were for longer periods, for life, etc. After a number had been flogged, the Government directed suspension of all further whippings during good behaviour. Special arrangements had, of course, to be made in Durban and elsewhere for accommodating the prisoners. About 2,500 were confined in a compound at Jacobs near Durban, formerly used by Chinese labourers; 400 (for the most part with sentences of two years) in a special prison at the Point, Durban; 100 at Fort Napier, Pietermaritzburg; and the rest in various gaols. The Inspector of Prisons (and Assistant Commissioner of Police), G.S. Mardall, was responsible for the carrying out of the foregoing and other connected duties. The labour on which the men were principally employed was in connection with the harbour works, Durban, as well as making and repairing roads in different parts of the Colony. Later, about 1,500 were hired by the Collieries, and others by the Railway Department. As the Ministry were of opinion that a good effect would be created on the Native mind by such ringleaders as had been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment being sent out of the Colony to serve their sentences, arrangements were made for the removal of twenty-five to St. Helena. They were deported on the 1st June, 1907. A general desire to abrogate martial law at the earliest opportunity was felt as soon as the troops had been demobilized. No one was more anxious to do this than the Government itself. With so many prisoners to be tried for offences of varying gravity, however, it was impossible to do this before the 2nd October. On the same day, the Governor, on authority granted by the Secretary of State in August, signified his assent to an Act indemnifying the military and civil authorities of the Colony and all such persons as had acted under them in regard to acts during the existence of martial law. It was with much gratification that the Governor and his Ministers received the following telegram, on the 2nd September, from the Secretary of State for the Colonies: "I rejoice to think that the period of strain through which the Colony of Natal has passed may now be considered at an end, and I desire on behalf of His Majesty's Government to express our sense of the courage and self-reliance with which the emergency has been met. The conduct of the troops in the field and the management of the operations appear from all accounts to have been admirable and to have been well supported by the determination and self-restraint of the Government and the people. I should have been prepared at any moment to move His Majesty's Government to render assistance, but I am glad that the necessity did not arise.