9610. You hold a bit of land here?-Yes.
9611. Do you also go to the ling fishing?-Yes, when I am at home any time; but I generally go to the whaling.
9612. Do you go to Lerwick for an engagement?-Yes. I generally engage through Messrs. Hay.
9613. Do you get your month"s wages in advance?-Yes; it is paid down in cash at the Custom House.
9614. You also get an allotment note?-Yes. I leave it with Messrs. Hay, and then they supply my family with what they require.
9615. Does your wife live at Mid Yell when you are away?-Yes.
9616. How does she get her supplies from Lerwick?-She sends an order down to them, and they send her up what she requires by the steamer.
9617. Is that the only account you keep?-That the only account I keep with them; but I keep some accounts with other men.
9618. Do you keep an account with the merchant for whom you go to the ling fishing afterwards?-Yes.
9619. When you come home from Greenland you settle with Messrs. Hay at the Custom House?-Yes, as soon as I come home.
9620. You did not use to do that formerly?-No; we always used to settle in the office.
9621. When you settled in the office, the amount of your account was deducted from what you were to get?-Yes; but what money we had to get was paid down to us in cash.
9622. But now you get all your money except what you have got in the ship, and the first month"s advance?-Yes.
9623. And with the balance you walk down to Hay & Co."s office and pay off their account?-Yes.
9624. I suppose you just go down with the clerk who has been along with you at the Custom House?-Yes.
9625. Do you always pay off their account on the same day that you are settled with?-Yes; but it only two years since we began to be paid in that way.
9626. Have you been at the whale fishing every year for some time back?-I have been eleven voyages at it but from 1852 I have been in the south as well as at Greenland, and I have been at the ling fishing too, and all sorts of trades.
9627. When is your last payment of oil-money generally settled for?-When the oil has been boiled at Dundee or Peterhead, and they know how much there is of it, the money is sent on to Lerwick. If we are there to receive it we will get it as soon as it comes and if not, it will lie until we come.
9628. Do you get it at the Custom House or Messrs. Hay"s office?-If we like, we get it at the Custom House; but this year I would not go there and I got it at the office. It was at night, and we could not get access to the Custom House; but as I wanted to get clear. I was just paid at the office.
9629. Is your first payment of wages and oil-money after you come home generally made before you leave Lerwick and come to Yell?-It is now. They are very strict about that. They like you to settle up before you leave the town.
9630. What amount of cash do you generally get as the first payment on a Greenland voyage?-It depends on what kind of voyage we make. Sometimes we have very little to get. Last year I had somewhere about 10 or 12 to get for wages and the first payment of oil-money. I had taken 2, 5s. of out-takes from Messrs. Hay besides my first month"s advance. That was for supplies to my family at home while I was away. I was only absent for six weeks.
9631. What ship were you in?-The "Labrador" of London. We made a good voyage.
Mid Yell, January 17, 1872, DANIEL MORE, examined.
9632. You are a fisherman and tenant at Cunningster?-I am a fisherman, but not a tenant. I have got a house of my own.
9633. How long have you been there?-About two months-since Martinmas. I was at Basta before, and at Colvister, and at Basta before that.
9634. Why have you changed so often? Could you not get a bit of ground to sit upon?-I was twenty-two years at first in Basta, and then I lost my health, and I began some little business in groceries.
The landlord of the ground was Mr. George Hoseason, but the tacksman was his half-brother, Mr. Hoseason of Mossbank. He thought I was doing too well in my grocery business, and taking away too much from their shop, and he put me away from there.
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9635. How did you know that he put you away for that reason?- Because they told me that.
9636. How long is it since that occurred?-About twelve years ago.
9637. Where did you go next?-To Colvister, where I was under Mr. William Henderson of Gloup, brother of Mr. George Henderson of Burravoe. I had a small shop there.
9638. Why did you leave that?-I left because I was not a fisherman. Mr. Henderson wanted me to go to the fishing; but as I would not he got another in my place, and thought he would make better of it.
9639. Is it usual for a proprietor to turn away a man who does not fish?-Yes. I paid 1 more than every man who fished every year since I left the fishing, except to Mr. Hoseason of Basta.
9640. Did you pay that to Mr. Henderson while you were at Colvister?-Yes.
9641. How long were you there?-Eight years.
9642. Did you pay 8 of additional rent to him during that time?- Yes. The other tenants paid 4 for the same amount of land that I paid 5 for.
9643. Did he tell you that that was because you did not fish?- Yes.
9644. Did he tell you that when you took the ground?-No; he did not say very much about it at that time.
9645. But he told you afterwards that you must pay 1 a year more if you did not fish?-Yes.
9646. Why did you leave?-I did not leave until he warned me.
9647. Why did he warn you?-Because he wanted a skipper for a boat.
9648. Where have you been since?-I was on Basta for three years.
9649. Where are you now?-On Major Cameron"s property, under Mr. Walker. I have no shop there; but I have a house and a bit of ground, which I bought with money I had saved. I am not doing anything at present.
9650. Have you known many men who have been turned out of their holdings because they did not fish?-I have known a few in Yell. The proprietors of the land, if they did not fish for them, would turn them out.
9651. Is that a common understanding among the people?-Yes.
9659. Is there anything else you want to say about it?-Nothing particular, but that I know I have been harshly handled because they thought I made a living by selling some groceries and one thing and another. They did not like it very well, and in that way they turned me out of both places.
Mid Yell, January 17, 1872, JOHN S. HOUSTON, examined.
9653. You are parochial schoolmaster of North Yell?-I am.
9654. You have had considerable experience in the management of property?-Yes, and in dividing runrig lands.