4421. Then your difficulty is, that you are both fishermen and farmers?-Yes; if the land was let at its real value, at what it was actually worth, and we had a lease of it, and were allowed at the same time to make the best of our fishing, we all believe that our circ.u.mstances would be improved.
4422. Suppose that were the case, there would then be no obligation upon you to deal at any shop, but you could go where you liked for your goods?-Yes; and we could make the best of our fishing at the same time.
4423. You could sell your fish to whom you pleased, making your own price?-Yes.
4424. Would it be any advantage to you to cure your own fish?- We believe it would; and we know it, because there are some of our neighbours who do it. There are people here who can speak to that.
4425. Don"t you think the curing is better done when it is done upon a large scale, than when a fisherman cures his own fish upon the beach, with insufficient materials and apparatus, and perhaps not with the same skill as people who are engaged in doing that and nothing else?-With regard to the skill, none of them can show us how to cure fish better than we could do ourselves.
4426. None of whom?-None of those who now cure them, and who have the large fishings. We know how to cure them as well as they do. We see how they are curing them now, and many of us have cured fish before, so that we know quite well about it.
4427. Do you get as good a price for your fish when you cure them yourselves as when they are cured by fish-curers?-We have not had a chance to cure them ourselves.
4428. But you say you know about it by experience?-Yes. There are neighbours curing their own fish near where I live. Laurence Shewan is one.
4429. Is he a fisherman like yourself?-Yes.
4430. Does he cure his own fish?-Yes.
4431. How long has he done so?-I never remember him doing anything else. There are others who cure them besides him.
4432. Is he better off than his neighbours, in consequence of having liberty to cure his own fish?-There are other circ.u.mstances as well which doubtless render him better off, but that must improve his circ.u.mstances too.
4433. Where does he live?-At Gord. John Shewan, Scatness, also cures his own fish himself. Laurence Shewan"s fish were purchased this year by Mr. Gilbert Irvine, and put into Mr. Bruce"s store; and I heard Mr. Irvine say that they were very good fish.
4434. Have you ever compared with any of your neighbours their profits by curing their own fish with you own takings by selling your fish green?-I have not; but there are other witnesses present who have done so.
Lerwick, January 9, 1872, LAURENCE SMITH, examined.
4435. Are you a fisherman at Trosswick, and a tenant of land under Mr. Bruce of Sumburgh?-Yes.
4436. How far is Trosswick from Toab, where William Goudie lives?-It is between two and three miles farther north.
4437. Have you heard the evidence which Goudie has given?- Yes. It is all correct, so far as I know.
4438. You have heard his description of the way in which the fish are delivered, and the way in which you hold your land, and the way in which you purchase goods at the shop at Dunrossness, and settle for them. Is that all correct?-It is.
4439. You deal in the same way with Mr. Bruce and his shopkeeper?-Yes. I have very little concern with the store at Grutness, because Mr. Bruce has another store at the place where I deliver my fish, which is called Voe.
4440. What is the shopkeeper"s name there?-Henry Isbister.
4441. Is that shop near Boddam?-Yes, it is just at Boddam.
4442. Is that store managed in much the same way Goudie has described with regard to the store at Grutness?-No, not exactly in the same way. Most of the things which are kept there are much the same as in other places.
4443. Do you mean that the quality of the goods is the same?- Yes, it is much the same as elsewhere.
4444. And you don"t complain of the prices there?-No, not of the things that I deal in myself.
4445. What are these-meal and tea?-No; I deal very little in these things there, because it has pleased G.o.d that I could mend myself in another way.
4446. In what way?-By going to another store.
4447. Then you are not obliged to deal with that store at all?-No, I am not obliged to go to that store unless I like.
4448. Is that because you have ready money with which to buy at another store?-Exactly.
4449. You have always got some money in your hands?-Yes.
4450. Do you sometimes buy in Lerwick?-Yes.
4451. But you also buy at Mr. Bruce"s store at Voe?-Yes; some trifling things, such as rope or iron hoop, or the like of that; and these are sold at much the same prices there as I can get them for at other places.
4452. Do you pay for them in ready money?-No.
4453. They are put into your account and settled for at the end of the year?-Yes.
4454. Where do you get your provisions?-I get them sometimes at Gavin Henderson"s, and sometimes at Lerwick.
4455. What do you pay for meal by the boll at Henderson"s?-I could not exactly say, because I don"t have to run an account for that. Generally I pay for it at once.
4456. Then, at settling time with Mr Bruce, do you generally get a large balance in cash?-Whether it is large or small, I get it in cash at the beginning of the year, at the settling time.
4457. Do you sometimes get advances in the course of the year while the fishing is going on?-Sometimes I do, if I require them.
4458. Have you often asked for advances of that kind?-I have.
4459. Have they ever been refused?-Never. I always got them when I had money coming to me.
4460. Do you mean that you always got them when he was due you money?-Yes. Sometimes, even if he had been due me a little money, he might not perhaps have had money beside him to supply me with; but when he had it I always got it, whether I had it to get or not.
4461. What has been the amount of money due to you for fish during the last two or three years?-I have a few receipts here which will show that. [Produces accounts.]
4462. This account [showing] is for 1870; and it contains rent, 6; roads, 4s. 6d.; poor-rate, 9s.: is that the tenant"s half?-Yes.
4463. Then there is a charge, "To share of rent of hill:" is that the scattald which you hold along with your neighbours?-Yes; and which the neighbouring landlord is not taking a rent for at all. It all runs scattald together.
4464. Is the neighbouring landlord Mr. Bruce of Simbister?-Yes.
4465. On his land, does the rent of the scattald come [Page 111]
into the rent of the farms?-There is no rent paid for the scattald at all on his land. It is used in the same way by all the tenants.
4466. When was the additional payment charged against you first for scattald?-Two years ago.
4467. Then there is cash for kirk seats, 3s.: why do you pay your kirk seats through your landlord?-I have paid them all along through him.
4468. Then there is-To account in Boddam shop, 18s. 61/2d.; to account in Grutness shop, 1s. 9d.; and then on April 25, by cash, 6, 14s. 7d.: that shows that you had not settled until April 25th?- Yes.