Several important events are reported from Natal. On Friday week
news came that Mr. H. M. Stainbank, the Magistrate of Mahlabitini, in Northern Zululand, had been murdered while collecting the Hut-tax. The outbreak of trouble in a district a considerable distance from the present scene of operations is disquieting, but it is possible that the event has no political significance. Dinizulu's men are searching for Mr. Stainbank's murderers, and Mr. Saunders, the Native Commissioner, considers that the neighbouring chiefs and their men are behaving well. Last Saturday Colonel Mansel made a reconnaissance in force towards Cetewayo's grave, and in a small engagement sixty Zulus were killed. This movement, however, seems to have had the effect of scattering the rebels before they could be dealt a final blow. Bambaata himself appears still to be lurking in the neighbourhood of the Nkandhla Forest, but his forces are split up into two bodies, and have probably crossed the Buffalo. It looks as if the campaign would degenerate into that form of action with which the Boers were familiar in their native wars,—sitting still while native levies beat the bush for rebels.
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