5535. Is that ever done? Is the bargain ever made for a fixed price at the beginning of the season to be paid according to the weight of fish when it is delivered and every time it is delivered?-No; I never had that bargain, and I never heard of it.
5536. Have you ever heard of any different bargain from the common one of settling at the end of the year?-Yes; there is sometimes a difference in the bargains with regard to the lines, when men have lines of their own, and do not require to hire them.
5537. But in all those cases the settlement is at the end of the year
5538. Have you heard of any bargain for settling at another time than at the end of the year, and in a different way?-No.
5539. Did you ever know of men agreeing to fish for wages?-Not in the ling-fishing.
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5540. Do you think free men would agree to that?-I don"t know: some of them might.
5541. Would you agree to it?-I would just as soon run my own chance.
Brae, January 10, 1872, GILBERT BLANCE, examined.
5542. You are a fisherman at Mid Garth?-Yes; in the immediate neighbourhood of Mossbank.
5543. Do you hold land under Mr. Bell?-No; the landlord under whom I held is dead, and the property is now under trustees. Mr.
Sievwright, writer, Lerwick, is the factor for it.
5544. Are you under any obligation to fish to a particular fish-curer?-No.
5545. You can fish for anybody you please?-Yes.
5546. For whom do you fish?-For Messrs. Pole, Hoseason, & Co.,
5547. Do you deal at their shop for all your goods?-Yes.
5548. Do you find that you have generally a balance to receive in cash at the settlement?-No; I have generally had a balance against me. I have never had a balance in cash to receive except in two special years. One of these was one year when they were paying 8s. per cwt. for the green fish; and the other was the past year, when they were also paying 8s.
5549. Do you think you are as well served at Messrs. Pole, Hoseason, & Co."s shop as you would be if you took your money and spent it where you pleased?-I don"t know much about the difference in that respect.
5550. Have you ever made any comparison between the prices which you pay for your goods at their shop, and what you would pay for them elsewhere?-No, I have never tried that.
5551. What is generally the amount of the balance against you at the end of the year?-It may range from 17 to 5.
5552. Do you get any payments in cash in the course of the year?-No; very seldom. When men are in debt there are no payments in cash; but if I need a little money, I can call upon them for that a.s.sistance.
5553. Do you mean when you want money for rent, or anything of that sort?-Yes, for rent.
5554. Do you consider that you are under any obligation to engage to fish for them in consequence of being in debt in that way?-I consider myself obliged to fish to them so long as I am indebted to them.
5555. Have you ever thought of engaging to fish for another company, or attempted to do so?-I have thought of it, but I did not think it was giving them fair play to offer my services to fish for another when I was indebted to them.
5556. Do you know many men, who are fishing to them, and who are indebted to them in the same way?-Yes; there are different men I know who are indebted to them, perhaps not to so large an extent, but still to some extent.
5557. Do they consider it fair to continue to fish to the merchants to whom they are in debt rather than to engage with another?-We hear them say very little about that.
5558. They don"t complain?-No; we don"t hear them complain much.
5559. Do you think you would get a better price for your fish if you were to engage with any one else?-We might make better bargains with other men, but we cannot attempt to do that in our present way of fishing.
5560. Is that because in the present way of fishing no price is fixed?-Yes; no price is fixed until the end of the year.
5561. Do you think the price fixed at the end of the year ought sometimes to be higher than it is?-We sometimes do think that, because, as has been already stated by the witnesses, although we are fishing for the whole season, we don"t know what we are to obtain for our fish. That depends upon the market which the merchant has to make for the fish before he can pay the value of them. The price will range from 8s. to 4s. 6d., according to the markets they make.
5562. The fishermen, I understand, have nothing to do with fixing the price?-Nothing whatever.
5563. Have you ever cured your own fish?-No.
5564. Nor sold them?-No.
5565. Have you any reason to believe that the current price as fixed by the fish-merchants is not the fair value of the fish throughout the season?-Some of the fishermen think they don"t get so much for their fish as they ought to get, but perhaps that may be a mistake on the part of the men.
5566. We are all apt to be a little discontented; but do you think there is any reason for that belief more than the natural tendency of the men to discontent?-I cannot say whether there is any real ground for that belief or not.
5567. You cannot tell any case in which you thought you got less for your fish than you ought to have got?-I could not mention any particular instance of that, because we never see the account of sales which the merchants make of the fish.
5568. Do you know when the fish sales take place?-I think it is some time about the month of November.
5569. How soon after that are you told what you are to get for your take?-When we come to settle, either on the last of November or the first of December..
5570. You heard the evidence of the previous witnesses: do you think it was generally correct?-I think it was very correct, so far as I know.
5571. Has your experience with regard to the system of dealing been the same as was described by them?-It has been the same as the last witness described.
5572. But you don"t know whether you got goods dearer at Pole, Hoseason, & Co."s shop than you could get them elsewhere?-No, I don"t know anything about that, because all we require, such as meal, lines, calico, and other things, comes from their shop.
5573. What price do you pay for meal?-We don"t usually buy meal in wholesale, as the last witness did, but probably in pecks or two pecks or lispunds.
5574. Do you keep a pa.s.s-book?-No.
5575. Why not?-Because we trust to the honesty of the merchants.
5576. Do they not want you to take a pa.s.s-book?-They would have no objection to us having one, but many of us are not good arithmeticians, and we could not make much of them although we had them.
5577. When you were out fishing, have you sometimes sold your fish to others than Pole, Hoseason, & Co.?-I have not been in the habit of doing that.
5578. Is it sometimes done?-Perhaps it is by some individuals.
5579. What is their reason for doing that?-I cannot say what their reason may be, unless it is to have immediate supplies.
5580. Or money?-Yes, or money; but it is commonly for something such as refreshments which they wish to take on their way to or coming from the fishing-ground.
5581. Where do you usually meet the people who buy your fish from you in that way?-Sometimes they are met in the course of our fishing operations at the land"s end.