4469. Are you often as late as that in settling?-No; that was the latest I ever knew.
4470. Was it your fault that the settlement was so late?-No; I should have liked to have settled sooner.
4471. Do you know any reason why you could not have settled sooner, even in November, when the fishing was over?-I don"t know any reason for that, except that they did not want to do it.
That is the only way in which I can account for it.
4472. Have you asked for a settlement to be made with you at that time?-I have not; because I thought there was no use doing it.
4473. There are entries here-by saith, by ling, by cod: were these for small fish caught during the winter?-There was a company of men who were pursuing the herring fishing; one part of the company were trying to prosecute the saith fishing for a time, until the others saw whether there were any herring to be got, and my proportion was one-twelfth share of the fish caught at the time.
4474. That was an extra thing altogether?-Yes; and each man"s proportion was put in his account.
4475. Is the amount of cash paid you, 6, 14s. 7d., a usual sort of sum for you to get at settlement?-No; it is sometimes smaller.
Sometimes it is nothing at all, and I have been in debt.
4476. Has that happened often?-Yes, it happened frequently for some years before that. I have no accounts for these years.
4477. I see that in 1865 there is marked a balance of 2, 1s. 5d.
Was that a balance which was due by you the year before?-Yes.
4478. Then 1864 had been a bad year, and Mr. Bruce had advanced you money above the price of your fish for that year?- Yes.
4479. Was that money advanced to you after settlement?-No; it was a balance that had been carried over some years before.
4480. When that balance was existing, did you consider yourself obliged to deal in Mr. Bruce"s shop rather than at another?-I was obliged so far to deal at his shop, because I could not think of going to another man and asking credit from him, when I saw no way of making provision to pay him. I could not expect any man to supply me in my necessity when I had no possible way of repaying him.
4481. But you were already in Mr. Bruce"s debt?-Yes, at that time I was.
4482. Would you have been bound by that, supposing you had not been bound by the terms on which you held your land, to deliver your fish to Mr. Bruce, and to deal at his store?-No, I don"t believe I would, if I had been at liberty to deal elsewhere at any other time.
4483. Have you ever paid any fines or liberty money for yourself or for any of your family?-None whatever.
4484. Have you understood that you were liable to pay such fines?-I understood that I was liable to pay a fine or to receive a warning if I did not fish for my landlord.
4485. But would you have been liable to pay anything besides being afraid of being removed?-I don"t know anything about that.
4486. In 1865 you had got cash advances to the amount of 10, 7s.
2d., and your account at Mr. Bruce"s store that year was only about 30s?-Yes.
4487. I suppose in that state of matters, you are pretty well content with the state of things as they are?-I might be well enough content with the state of things as they are, only I am bound to fish for him alone, and for no other man.
4488. But you are not bound to deal at his store?-No; I don"t believe he compels any man to be bound to his store entirely.
4489. Is there really any compulsion, either direct or indirect, to deal at his store?-No; not so far as I know.
4490. Even although you are in his debt, you are not bound to deal at his store?-No; I don"t believe he would oblige me to do that.
4491. But you have as much credit to deal at another man"s store as at his,-I mean you get an account opened as readily at another man"s store as at Mr. Bruce"s?-Yes.
4492. When you are in debt to Mr. Bruce, is it as easy for you to open an account at Mr. Henderson"s store, and to get goods on credit there, as to get goods Mr. Bruce"s shop?-I might find it as easy, only I don"t know whether Mr. Henderson would be inclined to give it to me.
4493. Do you think Mr. Henderson would not be as willing to give it to you as Mr. Bruce"s man at Voe?-I think he would not, if he saw no way by which I was likely to pay him.
4494. Mr. Henderson, I understand, does not buy fish?-He does.
4495. But he knows that you would not be at liberty to sell your fish to him?-Yes, he knows that.
4496. Do you think you would get a better price for your fish if you were selling them to him?-I don"t believe I would get any worse.
Lerwick, January 9, 1872, HENRY GILBERTSON, examined.
4497. You are a fisherman at Dunrossness?-I am.
4498. Have you a piece of ground of your own?-I am not a landholder. I live with my sister and brother-in-law.
4499. I have received a letter from Dunrossness, dated 30th December and signed Henry Gilbertson: was that letter written by you?-No. There is another person of that name living at Dunrossness.
4500. How do you distinguish yourself from him?-I am a fisherman, and he is a tailor.
4501. Is he a relation of yours?-He is my cousin.
4502. You have heard the evidence of William Goudie to-day: do you know from your own experience that it is in the main correct?-So far as my experience goes, I could not say that he has deviated a single word from the truth.
4503. Were you, when young, employed as a beach boy?-No. I would not go, because if they had bound me to that, I would have left the island, as I did.
4504. Did you leave in order to avoid being employed as a beach boy?-It was not exactly for that; but I was past being a beach boy before Mr. Bruce took the fishing.
4505. You have now come back there, and employ yourself as a fisherman in Mr. Bruce"s boats?-Yes.
4506. Are you settled with at the end of the year?-Yes; in the same way as the landholders are settled with.
4507. Do you run an account at the store in the same way, also?- Yes, sometimes; but I am under no obligation to do so, because I am a man who can get credit at any place.
4508. Do you consider yourself at liberty to fish for any person you please to engage with?-Not at all. Although I sit as a lodger in my brother-in-law"s house, I am under the same obligation to fish for Mr. Bruce as one who is a landholder.
4509. How is that?-Because if I did not do so, my brother-in-law would be warned out for my offence.
4510. How do you know that?-Because I have evidence to prove it in the case of a brother of my brother-in-law"s, who dried a few hundredweight of fish for himself, and for that offence his father was warned out, and had to pay a fine of 31s. 6d. before he got liberty to sit.
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4511. What was his name?-James Harper, sen.
4512. Was that long ago?-Six or seven years ago. I could not say exactly to a season back or forward.
4513. Did you know of that case at the time from Harper himself?-Yes, I was acquainted with the circ.u.mstance, and the day before I came here the man told me he had to pay the money.
4514. So that has served you as a warning, since you came back to live with your brother-in-law, that you must fish to Mr. Bruce?- Yes.