farmers, and the administration was determined to advance a minimal definition of Manyikahood. "Umtassa's country and people are called Manyika", wrote Native Commissioner Umtali in January 1904. "They do not speak the same dialect as the other Mashonas". The desire to separate Mutasa from neighbouring peoples can be seen in early district reports from Umtali, in which Native Commissioner Hulley contended that the three chiefs in the district (Mutasa, Maranke and Zimunya) had distinct origins (even if there was a popular tendency to refer to his district as "Manicaland"). As far as the administrative district of Makoni was concerned, the Native Department emphasized the distinction between its people and the Manyika. In 1910 there was a boundary dispute between the Native Commissioners of Makoni and Inyanga districts. Native Commissioner Inyanga wrote Superintendent of Natives Umtali to explain why he was collecting tax from Africans on farms which lay just within the western border of Makoni district: The matter was decided; the Chief Native Commissioner determined that "the N.C., Inyanga deal with all Manyika natives and the N.C., Rusapi with all the Makoni". The Native Department politically and culturally separated the Ungwe of Makoni from the Manyika. In 1915, a debate arose within the Native Department about the significance of the term mayinini in relation to Manyika marriage customs. Llewellyn Meredith (who had been Native Commissioner in both Melsetter and Makoni districts, whose inhabitants were considered Manyika) expressed his opinion about "Manica customs and language", but was scorned by the Manyika specialists. Superintendent of Natives Umtali mocked Meredith's "18 years experience of Manyika customs gathered in other districts" and invoked the authority of Archdeacon Etheridge (the leading missionary expert on Mutasa's chiefdom). "I do not of course know", wrote Etheridge, "what word may be used in Chindau, or Chirungwe, the dialects spoken in Melsetter and Rusape [Makoni] districts, but as regards Chimanyika there is no question at all". References Ethnic groups in Zimbabwe