6195. Do you get enough meal off your own ground to serve you?-Generally I do. I have a pretty good farm-just as much as will hold us in meal.
6196. How far do you live from Hillswick?-About four English miles.
6197. When you go to Stenness, do you get your supplies there?- Yes; the supplies that are required for the fishing.
6198. You keep an account for these with Mr. Anderson at Hillswick?-Yes.
6199. And that is balanced every year?-Yes; I settle once a year-perhaps in November.
6200. Have you generally a balance to get in cash?-Generally I have.
6201. How much did you get last year?-I don"t know; the amount differs yearly.
6202. But how much had you to get last year?-I don"t know.
Perhaps I had 20 to get from him.
6203. Was that the balance which was due to you?-Yes; I suppose I got 20 of cash from him last year.
6204. Was that the whole price of your fish, or was it the balance which you got in cash?-It was the balance I got in cash.
6205. Do you think many of your neighbours got much?-I don"t know, for I don"t interfere with any man"s accounts.
6206. Are you a skipper?-Yes.
6207. Have you any idea whether any of your men are as well off at the end of the year as you are?-I think so.
6208. Are most of them as well off?-I think so.
6209. You don"t hear them talking about having balance against them?-No, I don"t hear much about that. It does not lie in my way to interfere with it.
6210. Do you think the fishermen are better off now than they used to be long ago?-I think they are a great deal better off. I know I am much better off than ever my father was.
6211. How does that happen?-Because my father was a bound man, and had to fish at a very low price before he could be a tenant; but being a free man, I pay my rent on a day, and I serve any man I choose, and make the best bargain for myself that I can.
6212. Would you be better off if you knew before settling time what you were to get for your fish at the end of the year?-I know the price of the fish about settling time.
6213. But you don"t know it until settling time?-No. I might be worse off if I knew it sooner, because I might get a lower figure, as the merchant could not be sure then what he would get for his fish.
The price of fish in the south varies yearly.
6214. Who fixes the price at the end of the season?-I am not able to answer that exactly.
6215. What is your bargain about it?-I have had no particular bargains with the fish-curer; but there is an understanding that I have to get the highest currency of the country.
6216. Do you know how that is settled?-I don"t; or if I have heard it, I did not understand.
6217. You don"t know how it is found out what the highest currency is?-No; I cannot answer that exactly.
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6218. Who tells you what it is?-It is publicly known at settlement what is to be paid for the fish. We know what every man pays, and what the dry fish can realize.
6219. Is Hillswick the nearest shop you can go to for your goods?-It is the nearest shop that I can go to to get good goods.
There are small articles sold nearer, but Hillswick is the only shop.
6220. Did anybody tell you to come here to-day to give evidence?-n.o.body told me; but I heard that this was the day on which the evidence was to be given.
6221. Who told you that?-I don"t remember now who told me. I think there was a lad from Hillswick who told me about it two days back.
6222. What was his name?-Arthur Sandison.
6223. What does he do?-He is the shopkeeper here for Mr.
Anderson.
6224. And he told you to come here?-He told me this was the day when the evidence was to be taken, and that it was to be a public meeting. I understood something concerning it, and I came here voluntarily. There was no man who instigated me to come.
6225. Did Sandison not tell you that you had better come?-I don"t remember him saying that I had better come or not; but, however, no man instigated me to come. I did not require to be cross-questioned to come; I just came freely of my own consent.
6226. You said the fishermen are better off now than they used to be: can you tell me any difference there is upon their condition?-I told you already that they were bound men before, but they are not so now with me.
6227. Is there anything else in which they are better off?-Yes; I think a free man is better in every point of view than a bound man.
6228. Do you think the men get a better price for their fish now?- I think they are getting double now for their fish what they were getting about fifty years back, or perhaps forty years.
6229. Do you know that from your father?-No; I know it from my uncle"s accounts. He was a factor at Stenness; and I see from his accounts what the price at Stenness was then, and I know what it is now, and can see the improvement.
6230. Have you got his accounts?-I have. I have looked into them at home.
6231. What kind of accounts are they?-Factor"s accounts.
6232. Do they show the price of the fish, or just the quant.i.ties delivered?-They show the price paid to the fishermen, and also the price of meal and other articles.
6233. What was the price of fish in those accounts?-It was as low as 4s. per cwt. for green fish.
6234. And it is now about double?-Yes.
6235. Do you remember the price of meal then?-Meal was sometimes very high. I remember seeing meal charged at 12s. per lispund of 32 lbs. This season it has been 5s. 4d.
6236. But sometimes it is higher?-Yes; the price of meal varies continually, just as it does in the south market. I don"t think there is much advantage on that score.
6237. You don"t think there is much difference on the price of meal, but on the price of fish there is a great difference?-Yes.
6238. Is there anything else you are able to tell me about the subject of this inquiry?-I don"t think so.
6239. Have you any boys engaged at fish-curing work?-I had one boy engaged at it during the past season. He was in Mr. Adie"s service at Stenness.
6240. Mr. Adie keeps a shop there during the fishing season?- Yes; to supply the fishermen with any necessaries during the time of the fishing.
6241. Does your boy keep an account at that shop?-He has only been employed for one season, and I kept his account and settled for him myself. He is quite a young boy-only thirteen years of age.