9832. Did you remember that you had got all the articles, and the price of them, when they were read over to you?-Yes.
9833. Did you order them?-Yes; I either got them myself or some member of my family brought them home.
9834. But are you sure that you can recollect perfectly well both the articles you got, and the quant.i.ties, and the prices?-Yes; when the account is read over to me I can.
9835. When you get a thing out of the shop, do you always know the price of it?-Yes.
9836. You ask the price, and you are told what it is at the time when you buy it?-Yes.
9837. Do you get all your supplies there?-Yes; unless perhaps a very little which we may buy from some other shop.
9838. Do you sometimes buy at Johnston"s shop?-Yes, but very little.
9839. Do you pay for that at the time?-Yes.
9840. You have not an account with Johnston?-No.
9841. I suppose most of your neighbours have an account with Spence & Co. and get the most of their supplies from them?-Yes.
9842. Do none of them deal with other shops in the district?-I am not able to say what they do.
9843. What was the price of meal at Spence & Co."s shop during the past year?-1s. 5d. per 8 lbs. I think it was the same price for almost the whole year. I rather think it was 1s. 4d. once, but I cannot say.
9844. Have you got meal from any other shop?-Yes, from Mr.
Isbister. The price there was 1s. 4d.
9845. Did you pay for that in cash?-Yes.
9846. Was the meal of the same quality?-Yes.
9847. Do you buy any soft goods from Spence & Co."s shop?- Yes, I buy white cotton for making oilskin clothes and shirts. We pay from 41/2d. to 8d., according to the quality of the cotton. It is generally unbleached cotton that we buy.
9848. Do you oil it and make it waterproof yourself?-Yes.
9849. Who do you pay your rent to?-To Spence & Co. They pay it to Mr. Edmonstone for me.
9850. Do you mean that it is put down in your account with them against you?-Yes.
9851. How do they pay it to Mr. Edmonstone?-In cash, I suppose; but I don"t know anything about that.
9852. They don"t give you a line to Mr. Edmonstone?-No.
9853. Do you get receipts for your rent?-Yes, if we ask for them.
9854. But you don"t generally ask for them?-No.
9855. Have you generally a balance to get at the end of the year, or is the balance against you?-The balance is against me at present, and it has been against me since the first year of the company in consequence of bad fishings and bad crops.
9856. What boat hire do you pay?-2, 14s. for the boat, or 9s. per man. I buy my own lines. I get them at fishing time, and they are marked into the account. The price is from 2s. 3d. to 3s. per line, according to the weight of the lines. I require ten ground lines and a line for a buoy rope.
9857. Does each man require that number?-Yes.
9858. Do you pay about 24s. for the ten lines?-Yes; and then we have to furnish these lines with smaller lines and hooks. If they are all new, the cost of lines and hooks will be about 30s. per man for what we call a weight of lines.
9859. How do you settle for them?-We settle for them along with all the rest of our accounts on the day of settlement. The whole account is read over and summed up together, and then the rent is brought forward, and the whole dealings put in. Our earnings are placed on the credit side of the page, and then balance is struck in our favour, or against us, as case may be.
9860. Are all the lines charged against you one year?-Yes.
9861. When you buy the lines at the beginning of the fishing season, there is no arrangement that the price of them is to be charged against, the next three years, and that you are to pay them by instalments?-No.
9862. Do you return the lines at the end of the season?-No; we keep them. They will perhaps serve for three seasons; or if the lines are really good, they may do for four.
9863. Then you will have nothing to pay for lines the second year if you have paid them up in the first year?-If we have paid them up we have nothing to pay afterwards.
9864. Do you usually manage to pay up your lines in the first year?-We generally pay what we can when we settle. What we have over from the fishing is just put to the payment of the whole that we are due.
9865. Are there any other fishing expenses excepting the boats and lines?-Yes; the hooks and tomes, or small lines, have always to be put in repair.
9866. Do you pay for them?-Yes; we buy the whole of them, and we repair the tomes and hooks ourselves.
9867. Then that is not an additional expense?-No.
9868. Do you ever get any cash advanced to you from Spence & Co.?-At times I get a few shillings.
9869. How long is it since you began to fish for them?-I have fished for Mr. Spence since 1857, and for Spence & Co. in 1868, 1869, 1870, and 1871.
9870. Have you ever got anything more than four shillings in cash?-No, not in cash.
9871. Have you any taxes or poor-rates to pay?-Yes; the poor-rates are charged by Mr. White, the inspector and collector, and they are paid in cash.
9872. Do you draw that from your account with the company, or how do you raise the cash for it?-I get a little cash from the company to pay my poor-rates.
9873. Do you sell any stock off your farm?-Yes, when I have a cow I sell it. I cannot sell one every year; I have not so many as that.
9874. Have you no other beasts but cows?-No.
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9875. Who did you sell your last cow to?-The last I sold to the company; it was a three-year-old quey. It was taken to the sale in May 1871, and I got 9s., which was put to my account. I got no money.
9876. Did you ever get money for any of the stock you have sold during the last five years?-No.
9877. Were they always put into your account?-Yes.
9878. Did you always sell them to Spence & Co.?-I sold them to Mr. David Edmonstone. I sold nothing to the company except that quey.
9879. Why did you sell them to Mr. Edmonstone?-They were put down towards my rent.
9880. Then you did not pay your rent at that time through Spence & Co.?-No; I was not fishing for them then. I sold a fat cow to Mr. David Edmonstone since I began to fish for Spence, to pay a balance which I was due him. These are all the cattle I have had to sell.