4515. Do you think you would be better off if you were at liberty to deliver your fish to any merchant you liked?-I would.
4516. In what way?-Because I could make more of them.
4517. Would you get a larger price for your fish?-Yes. I would perhaps get a larger price; but then I would have a great advantage too by curing them for myself.
4518. Do you think that would really be a great advantage?- Decidedly; and I can prove it by the case of a man who has prosecuted the fishing with me this very season, Laurence Leslie. I was one of the crew with him.
4519. Don"t you think he was particularly fortunate last year, and that very often your fish might be spoiled in curing, and would not bring so good a price?-We have all cured our fish before, and we never lost anything worth speaking of in that way.
4520. Where have you cured your fish before?-In the same place where I now live.
4521. Was that before these restrictions were laid upon the tenantry?-Yes; one year before and one year since the restrictions were laid on.
4522. Then you have done it since without being challenged?- Yes; but it was by their own good-will that they allowed me to do it.
4523. You had some favour shown you?-Yes.
4524. How did that happen?-They just told me they would not disturb me, as I was a young man, and could either stop or go as I thought fit.
4525. If you had been a tenant, you think you would not have had the same liberty?-No, I would not.
4526. You say you can get the same credit at any other store that you can get at Mr. Bruce"s: do you mean that you can open an account and get your things without paying for them until the end of the season?-Yes.
4527. Can you do so at Gavin Henderson"s store, for instance?- Yes; or in Lerwick.
4528. But does the merchant with whom you would open an account of that sort not know that you fish for Mr. Bruce, that you are bound to deliver all your fish to him, and that you may at the same time be running an account at his shop which would have a preference at settlement over any account you might open in Lerwick or at Henderson"s?-I generally give them to understand how I am circ.u.mstanced, and they advance me accordingly.
4529. Do you generally have a large balance in cash to receive when settling with Mr. Bruce?-I have only prosecuted the fishing there for three years; I have settled for two of these years, and for this one I have not settled yet.
4530. Do you get an account when you settle with him?-Yes; I have got a copy of it for one year. [Produces it.]
4531. Do you get that as a matter of course when you are settling with Mr. Bruce?-I asked for it, and he did not refuse to give it to me.
4532. This account is for the settlement which took place in April last?-Yes.
4533. It shows-June 27, 1870, to cash for self, 1; Sept. 16, to cash for self, 1; Dec. 22, to amount to credit of Paul Smith: what does that mean?-It was a small sum I advanced a brother-in-law of mine to help him to pay his rent. It was entered from my account into his, and was the same as cash.
4534. Jan. 6, to cash for self, 10s.; to fine for swine, 2s. 6d.: what was that fine for?-The landlord has a law that if you allow your swine to go at large, and the officer for that purpose catches them outside your house loose, he imposes a fine of 2s. 6d. upon you for each offence.
4535. Is that law in the regulations of lease, or is it just an understood thing?-It is understood to be a law that he has made.
4536. But you are not a landholder?-No; but the swine belonged to me.
4537. Then there is, to a ticket and medal for 1871, 3s.: that is for the Fishermen"s Society?-Yes.
4538. March 15, to account per Henry Gilbertson, 3s. 4d.: what was that?-That was a small balance that was advanced by him for me to the other Henry Gilbertson.
4539. To 11/2 bushels salt from Scatness, 1s. 6d., by amount from boat"s account, 19, 4s. 31/2d.: that was the amount of your earnings?-Yes.
4540. How many others were there in the boat?-There were six.
4541. Then, to account in Grutness, 3, 8s. 21/2d., to cash, 10, 15s.
81/2d.; in all 19, 4s. 31/2d.: that was the whole of your account for that year?-Yes.
4542. Have you anything to say about the prices of the things you get at Grutness store?-They are rather above the figure usually paid for the same things in other parts of the country.
4543. Have you compared the prices there with the prices at which you can get the same articles elsewhere?-Yes; for instance of meal.
4544. Have you bought meal there?-Yes.
4545. Was it entered in the account you have shown me?-Yes; but all my account at the shop, whatever it was for, was entered in that account in one slump sum, so that the price cannot be distinguished from that. There are no details given there of the shop account.
4546. Were the details of that account read over to you?-Yes; or I read it over.
4547. Did you find it to be correct?-Yes, generally.
4548. But you think the meal was charged higher than it could be got for elsewhere?-I am sure of it.
4549. Do you remember what price it was charged at?-Yes.
4550. Did you take a note of it at the time?-I took a note of the quant.i.ty at the time; but I did not know the price until settlement.
4551. Have you a pa.s.s-book at the store?-[Produces pa.s.s-book.]
That is what I keep for myself. These [showing] are the entries for 1870, the year to which the account applies. When I knew the price of an article when I received it from the store, I put it down in ink; but I did not know the price of the meal, and I put it down in pencil when I came to settle.
4552. Here [showing] is half boll oatmeal, 11s?-Yes; and these are the ranging prices in Lerwick for the same year: March 1870, per boll oatmeal, 17s. 9d. May, 18s. 6d.; July, 20s.; August, 21s.
4553. Where did you get these?-I got them from a merchant in Lerwick this morning, Mr. John Robertson, sen. The note containing them is in his own handwriting.
4554. Did he refer to his books before telling you what the prices were?-Yes, he turned up his accounts for that year.
4555. And these are the prices at which he told you he sold meal here?-Yes.
4556. For cash or for credit?-I cannot say.
4557. Have you ever been directed by Mr. Bruce or Mr. Irvine to look after men who were supposed to be selling their fish to other curers?-I have.
4558. You shake your head in a very serious way at that: did you not like the job?-I did not.
4559. When was it that you were told to do that?-At last settlement.
4560. That would be in April 1870?-Yes.
4561. Were there some men who were supposed to be inclined to sell their fish to some others?-Yes.
4562. Was any particular man named to you, or was it just a general direction to look after them?-There was just a general direction given to us to inform them of any men who did so.
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