12,175. Did you mean by the offer you made to them that you would give them a price fixed at the beginning of the season?- No; I could not fix a price then. I meant that I would give them as much as any other fish-buyer who was in the trade.
12,176. Did you mean that you would give them that price at the end of the season when they delivered their cured fish?-yes.
12,177. Did you make a special offer to any particular crews?-I have said to some of the men to tell their skippers what I had offered. The skipper was not in at the time, but I told one of the men that I would give him 10s. more than any other one if he would give me his fish.
12,178. Have you reason to believe that the man carried your message to the skipper?-Yes; I know he did carry it.
12,179. Did you get any answer to it?-No.
12,180. Then how did you know that the man had carried your message to the skipper?-Because I asked the skipper afterwards about it; and he said he had been engaged at the beginning of the season to deliver his fish to another party.
12,181. Were these fish to be cured by himself?-Yes.
12,182. Are contracts made so early as that with men who cure their own fish?-In some cases they are.
12,183. Was the other party in this case Messrs. Garriock & Co.?-I don"t think it was. I would rather mention the name privately. [Hands in the name of a fish-curing firm.]
12,184. Are these gentlemen you have named extensive purchasers of cured fish in your district?-I believe they would buy all they could get.
12,185. Perhaps they have the same difficulty which you experience in buying fish?-I suppose they have.
12,186. Do you carry on any business with men who are engaged to fish in the ling fishing for Messrs. Garriock & Co.?-Yes. I supply the crews with what they require for the fishing, such as lines, and hooks, and tar.
12,187. Are they not expected to take their supplies from the shop of the merchant with whom they engage?-Sometimes it is much handier for them to get them from me than to go to Reawick for them; and when I know the crew will pay me, I supply them to them.
12,188. Your shop is at a great distance from Reawick, or any of the larger fishing stations?-Yes.
12,189. Do you make these supplies to the men to a large extent?-No, not to a large extent; only to a few boats. It is only to the crews that I make these supplies, because the company accounts are paid first at the time of settlement, and I look to the skipper to see that I am paid.
12,190. Then a company account of that kind is a safer thing than an account with one of the men?-Yes.
12,191. Do the fishermen themselves, as individuals, get supplies from you on credit while they are engaged in the ling fishing?- Yes.
12,192. Do they not go more frequently to Reawick, or to Messrs.
Garriock & Co."s other stores, for supplies?-Yes. There are certain parties that I won"t give them to.
12,193. Do you furnish the princ.i.p.al part of the supplies to those men in your neighbourhood who fish for Garriock & Co.?-No.
Garriock & Co. do that themselves. It is only when they cannot get over to Garriock a Co."s stores, or when Garriock & Co. might be out of any article they want, or something like that, that they come to me. They only come to me for what they want when they cannot do better.
12,194. Is it the case that some of them come to you for supplies because Reawick is so far away?-Sometimes that is the case in the busy season. When the fishing is going on they are glad to go to the nearest place, and get a few lines or hooks, or what they want but when they do go to Reawick they take as much from there as possible.
12,195. Are they expected to do so?-I rather think they are.
12,196. Do you understand that from the men themselves, or is it merely your own inference from the way in which they act?-It is my own opinion.
[Page 300]
12,197. Have you heard anything from the men which has confirmed that opinion?-No, I could not say that I have.
12,198. Do you find that the connection of the fishermen with a large company of that kind, which buys their fish, and which acts as factor upon the estates where the fishermen live, interferes with the extension of your own business?-I cannot say that it does.
12,199. Have you not told me already that you have not been able to buy fish from the men, although you wanted to do so?-Yes; it interferes with me in that way, so that I cannot get the fish.
12,200. But you don"t suppose the men would deal at your shop, in preference to the shop of the merchant who employs them, even although they could do so?-If they were fishing to me, I believe they would deal with me the same as with any other one. I cannot quite agree with what Mr. Georgeson said about that. I think there is a little bribe which the skippers get for seeing that the men go to the shop. I think it is an understood thing between the skipper and the fishbuyer, that he (the skipper) is to get something extra.
12,201. Does not the skipper usually get a fee?-No; he is generally supposed to get the same as the men, but I rather think he gets a little more.
12,202. You say that that serves as a bribe: for what purpose?-I leave that to you.
12,203. Do you suppose it has the effect of making him influence the men to take their supplies from the merchant"s shop?-I leave that to you to judge.
12,204. Do you suppose that the skipper, in general, does guide his men in that direction?-I rather think he does in some cases.
12,205. Have you known any special instance that you could point to, where that was done?-There was one boat"s crew with whom I was settling for a small company account. I asked them why they did not give me their fish as we were next-door neighbours, or something like that; and the men all got up against the skipper, and said they were quite willing to give me their fish, only that the skipper had gone away and made an agreement for them before.
12,206. That was for the sale of their fish?-Yes, for the sale of the dry fish. I would have bought them at the same price as Garriock & Co, or any other one.
12,207. But that was not a case in which the men were induced to go for supplies to the fish-curer?-They did not require to go there for their supplies unless they had liked, because they could have got their supplies from me if they had said they would give me their fish at the end of the season. If they had done that I was willing to supply them with money, or meal, or anything they wanted.
12,208. These were men who were curing their own fish?-Yes.
12,209. But have you known any cases in which men who were engaged to fish during the whole season, and to deliver their fish green to Garriock & Co., were induced by the skipper to go to Reawick for their supplies?-I cannot say that I have.
12,210. Is it not the fact that men who live near you do go to Reawick for supplies although it is much farther away?-Yes.
12,211. And although it is inconvenient?-Yes, it is inconvenient.
They could do much better by coming to my shop, which is next door to them, and they could get as good articles at the same price as they can at Reawick.
12,212. How far is it from your place to Reawick?-I think it is about 10 or 12 miles.
12,213. When the men go there for meal or other supplies, are these supplies brought across the country?-Sometimes they are brought by boats and sometimes round by the rocks.
12,214. When a crew cure their own fish, is it the rule that the sale must be of the whole catch of the boat, or can each man sell his fish separately?-No, they must all be sold together; and they generally go to the place where the skipper or the majority of the men want them to go.
12,215. Do you think the skipper has a considerable influence in that matter?-I think he has.
12,216. Of course, where the men are fishing independently, and curing their own fish, there is no arrangement with the merchant for the skipper"s fee?-No; that is an understood thing between the skipper and the fish-buyer, and I don"t think the men know anything at all about it. There is no fee at the ling fishing, and the men can go to whom they please. They are different there from what they are in the Faroe fishing.
12,217. Do you buy any hosiery?-I buy it little, and I pay for it in the same way which Mr. Georgeson explained. It is all done by barter.
12,218. Do you also pay for eggs and b.u.t.ter by goods?-Yes.
Lerwick, January 24, 1872, JOHN JOHNSTON, examined.
12,219. You are a merchant at Bridge of Walls, in Sandsting?-I am.
12,220. You are a son of Mr. George Johnston, merchant at Tresta?-Yes.