5347. How long have you fished for him?-For about fourteen or fifteen years.
5348. When you settle in November or December, have you generally a balance of cash to receive?-Sometimes I have and sometimes not.
5349. Does that depend upon the season?-Yes.
5350. When it has been a good season, you have generally something to receive?-Yes.
5351. How much did you get at last settlement in cash?-I think I got about 19 in money.
5352. What was the amount of your account for goods furnished at the shop?-I had more things in Mr. Adie"s hands then than my summer"s winnings; I had cattle in to sell.
5353. Had you sold cattle to Mr. Adie as well as your fish?-Yes.
I had sold a young stot and a cow; I think they came to about 8.
5354. Were they sold at a public auction?-Yes.
5355. And bought by Mr. Adie there?-Mr. Adie.
became good to pay me for them. I could not say exactly who was the purchaser.
5356. The price of these animals was included in the 19 you got in cash?-Yes; I paid my shop account, and then I got that money.
5357. Then, deducting the price you got for your cattle, there is 11 remaining as the price you got for your fish?-Yes; but I owned the boat myself, and I had the other men"s hires to get in.
5358. Were these accounted for to you through Adie"s books?- Yes. There were five of these hires to be paid; there were six of us in the boat altogether.
5359. What would be their share of the hire?-I think the hire of a boat is 50s.
5360. Then each of them would pay about 8s. 6d.?-Yes.
5361. So that would be 44s. off for boat-hire, leaving little less than 9 as the price of your fish, after deducting your shop account?-No; my share of the summer winning was more than that.
5362. But I am asking you what you got in cash at settlement?-I think it was about 19, or perhaps a little more.
5363. And 8 was taken off for the cow and about 44s. for the boat-hire?-The price of the cow and stot and my summer"s earnings were all summed up together, and came to a certain amount; what I had got from Mr. Adie came to a certain amount too, and when I paid that off I had about 19 to get in clear money.
5364. But after taking the price of the cow and the value of the boat-hire off the 19, there would be something like 9 remaining: was that 9 due to you for anything besides your fish? Was anything due to you by Mr. Adie, except the price of the cow and the boat hire, and the price of your fish?-I don"t remember anything else.
5365. Then 9 would be something like the price of your fish?-I don"t remember.
5366. Have you a pa.s.s-book?-I have one but I have not brought it with me.
5367. How much was your shop account?-I think it was about 17.
5368. Then your fish would be worth about 26 altogether: was that the value of your take of fish last year?-No; my fish did not come to that. I think my sixth share came to about 18; but then, as I owned boat of my own, and had the expense of her to pay I was paid a little more than the others, so that I might have more than 18 to get.
5369. How do you square up your account at the shop and your account for fish at the end of the year?-At the end of the year I may have more things put into Mr. Adie"s hands than my fishing.
For instance last year I had that cow and stot, and perhaps some other things, and these and my fishing are all put together to my credit. Then my out-takes and things I have been requiring from Mr. Adie are put too, and the amount they come to is stated to me.
5370. Is that read over to you, or have you got it [Page 133]
already in your pa.s.s-book?-Sometimes I have a pa.s.sbook, and sometimes I don"t require one. Sometimes I don"t fash with it; that is the truth.
5371. Why is that?-I thought there was very little need for it, because Mr. Adie and I never disputed about these things, and when I had a pa.s.s-book I was not very particular about keeping it.
5372. Do you get money advanced to you in the course of the season if you want it?-I never was refused it when I asked for it.
5373. Is there generally something due to you for fish at the end of the season?-Sometimes I have been due Mr. Adie, and sometimes I have had a little in his hand; but, taking one time with another, we are generally square, and I am happy to say we are square in the meantime.
5374. Is there anything you think could be mended in that way of settling your accounts?-I don"t know, I am sure.
5375. Was there anything particularyou came here to-day to say about it?-There is one thing I would say, that we fishermen never know what we are to have when we commence our fishing. We work away as if we were blind. We don"t know what the price is to be until the time of settlement, and then we must just take what currency is given, and we can get no further, and can make no more for ourselves.
5376. Do you think you could make any better arrangement than that?-I don"t know, I am sure.
5377. Do you think you would be better off if you made a bargain for a fixed price to be paid to you at the delivery of your fish?-I might be better off with that in one season, and I might be worse off in others; but if I made my bargain for that, I could not grumble, although the fish could be paid better. At settlement I must stand by my bargain. Then, if the price of fish was less, the merchant might lose; so that I don"t know which way would be best.
5378. But in that way you would know what you were working for?-Yes; and I would have no reason to grumble if I had made a bargain, even although I could have made a better thing of it in another way.
5379. Have you ever been asked to make a bargain of that kind?- No.
5380. Have you ever proposed it yourself?-I have turned it over, and said that it was a hard thing for a poor fisherman like me to fish and not know what I was fishing for, when other seamen knew what they were working for; but I never came to any conclusion about it.
5381. Do you think, if you were paid in that way in the course of the season as the fishing went on, you could make a better use of your money by purchasing your goods at other places than Mr.
Adie"s shop?-I could not say much about that.
5382. Could you buy your goods as well and as cheaply nearer home?-I don"t think it, because the merchants appear to be all much about the same in our neighbourhood. They have all one price for their articles.
5353. Are the merchants about you all engaged in the fishing business as well as in the shop business?-Not all of them; but some of them are. Mr. Pole engaged in it; he is the princ.i.p.al merchant near us.
5384. Are there some of them who are not engaged the fishing business at all?-There is Robert Murray at Swinister; he is not much engaged in it. His shop about half a mile from where I live.
5385. Would you be as well served there, and as cheaply, as you are at Mr. Adie"s and at Mr. Pole"s?-I don"t think would be any better.
5386. Would it be any advantage to you to have your money at your own command?-I might think so. A man is always glad to have some money to lay his hands upon.
5387. In answering my question in that way, do you mean to say that your money is not at your own disposal?-What I have to get when I settle I get without a word, and it is at my own disposal; but I would not like to take money from a man when I was due him anything. I would like always to pay my debts; and what I had over when I would know was my own, and I would make the best of it that I could.
5388. Does that mean that what money you get before settlement is not your own, and is not at your own disposal?-When I was standing in need of anything and wanted a little money, which I did not have myself, I could go to Mr. Adie when I was fishing for him, and ask him for 1 or 2, and he would give it to me, and then when I settled I would pay it back to him.
5389. That is to say, it would be charged against you at settlement?-Yes.
5390. But do you mean to say that if you get 1 or 2 in that way, you would not be at liberty to spend it as you pleased, and to buy goods with it at any shop you liked?-No. I could go where I liked with it, if I got it from him, because, of course, I would pay it back to him again, and he would not care what use I made of it.
5391. Would you rather have more cash advanced to you during the season than you have in an ordinary way at present, and not get all your goods at Voe?-I could not exactly say about that; I might. If I was paying down cash for the goods, I might get them a little cheaper than by marking them down.
5392. Would you get them cheaper for cash at Mr. Adie"s own shop at Voe?-Well, money is a thing that every person is always glad to get hold of; and he might give me 1d. or 2d. down upon an article for ready money, which I would not get if he were to mark it down in his book.
5393. Do you know that you get a discount of 5 per cent. there for cash?-I have got it before. I have got 5 per cent. discount when I settled.
5394. Was that on goods that were entered in your account?-Yes; I have got that. I am not perfectly sure if I will get it this year, but I know that I have got it before.