Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 129

4791. Does your account take off most of the price of your fish?- Yes, the most of it.

4792. You only get a small balance at the end of the year?-Yes, if I have it to get; but if not, Mr. Bruce is kind enough to make me a small advance as I need it.

4793. Of course that is on the footing that you are to fish to him next year?-We understand so.

4794. Do you think you would get your meal cheaper at another store than at Grutness, if you had liberty to deal at another store?- I think so, according to what other people say.

4795. Have you inquired the price of meal at Messrs. Hay's shop there?-I have not inquired about it myself.

4796. What do you pay for your meal at Grutness store?-It varies according to the quality and the current price of meal.

4797. Do you pay the same price for it all the year round?-Yes.

4798. Is that generally the price which prevails at the end of the year at settling time, or is it an average of the prices that have prevailed during the whole year?-When it all comes to be summed up, it is generally a little in advance, on the whole, of what we could buy meal for at another shop,-for instance, at Hay and Co.'s.

4799. Is the quality of it as good as you could get at Hay & Co.'s?-The quality is good.

4800. Is there anything else you want to add to the statements of the other witnesses?-No.

Lerwick, January 9, 1872, THOMAS AITKEN, examined.

4801. You are a fisherman at Eastsh.o.r.e, in Dunrossness?-Yes.

4802. Are you a tenant of land under Mr. Bruce?-I am only tenant of a room, not of any land. I hold a house there.

4803. Are you bound in any way to fish for Mr. Bruce?-Yes; I signed an agreement to fish for him when he took the fishing in his own hand at Grutness, eleven or twelve years ago.

4804. Were you a landholder at that time?-No; but I was living in my father's house, and I was bound to fish for Mr. Bruce like the rest.

4805. What was the doc.u.ment you were asked to sign?-The general tenor of his statement was, that he was to give the current price, and I was bound to fish for him while I was living on his estate.

4806. Have you any objection to adhere to that bargain?-I am of the opinion that, if I had had my freedom, I might have made a little more from my fish than I have done.

4807. But would you not have your freedom simply by removing to another place?-Not in Dunrossness.

4808. You mean not on his land?-No, nor on Mr. Grierson's land. I would be bound to fish for Grierson under the same rules if I were to remove to his property.

4809. Do you live with your father still?-No; my father is an old man, and he has ceased to hold land.

4810. Do you consider yourself still bound to fish for Mr. Bruce, even although your father does not hold any land from him?-Yes; I consider I am bound while I am living on his estate.

4811. Have you any copy of the agreement which you signed?- No.

4812. Where did you sign it?-In the shop at Grutness.

4813. Who asked you to sign it?-Mr. Bruce's factor, or his farmer who was in Sumburgh at that time who was sent round among the tenants with a letter from old Mr. Bruce, intimating to them that his son was to take the district into his own hands, that they were to fish for him, and that any one refusing to fish was to leave.

4814. That is the letter which Laurence Smith has spoken of?- Yes.

4815. But did you sign anything?-Yes, I signed a paper, stating that I would rather stay and fish for him than that I would flit.

4816. Was that after the letter had been sent round among the tenants?-Yes.

4817. How long after?-A few days perhaps,-not more.

4818. Were you asked to go to the shop and sign it?-Yes.

4819. Were any others asked to sign it?-I believe there were.

4820. Was it the factor who asked you to sign it?-Yes. Gilbert Irvine was the factor; he asked me to sign it, and I signed to him.

The paper was there, ready for us to sign.

4821. Was it read over to you?-Yes.

4822. What was the substance of it?-The substance of it was just what I have stated-that if we would fish to Mr. Bruce on these terms, we could stay on the land; and if not, then we would have to go.

4823. Were there many people who signed it at the same time with you?-No.

4824. Was there anybody else who signed it at the same time?-I could not exactly say. I don't think there was anybody in the house when I signed it, but there were a great many names to it before I went in.

4825. Was it signed by landholders only, or by those who had merely a room?-There were very few at that time who merely held a room. There are not many yet who do so; but the doc.u.ment was signed generally by the fishermen who fished there.

4826. Was the thing you signed an obligation to fish for Mr. Bruce so long as you occupied a room or a house on his ground?-Yes; I so understood it.

4827. But if you ceased to occupy that house or room you would be free?-Yes; and we could go to another place.

4828. You settle every year in the spring?-Yes.

4829. Do you generally have a balance in your favour?-Not very often. I have no land, and therefore I have to rely upon my own fishing, or what work I can do for him when I am called upon to work.

4830. Are you bound to work for Mr. Bruce as well as to fish for him?-I am not bound to work for him; but if I am in debt to him, of course he will call me out to work.

4831. But he will pay you for it?-Yes; but I am not quite satisfied with that pay. It is only a penny for one hour's work.

4832. Does that go into your account?-Yes.

4833. Have you got any pa.s.s-book at the shop?-No; I have no pa.s.s-book there. I see the articles which I receive from him entered into his book, and I told the price of most of the things when they supplied to me; but the princ.i.p.al thing which I get from the store is meal, and I never know the price of it until the day when I come to settle, or until I hear it from any person who has settled before me for the same year.

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4834. Do you know what price you paid for it at last settlement?- I paid the same price for it as the other witnesses you have examined-22s. for Scotch oatmeal, and 20s. for barley-meal.

4835. Do you think you could have got your meal cheaper than that elsewhere?-Yes, I am under that impression.

4836. Have you asked the price of it elsewhere?-Yes; Mr. Hay's factor at Dunrossness had meal which was cheaper at that time.,

4837. That was in the spring of last year?-Yes.