Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 134

5027. But you would have a long way to carry them if you were to buy them here?-Yes; but we don't think much of our travel sometimes when we can make good bargain.

5028. Have you anything more to say about the state of matters in your neighbourhood?-I have nothing more to say at present; only, if I am at liberty to do so, I should like to say on Mr. Grierson's behalf that, as a landlord, he has been very favourable to me and to many of the tenants. He has supplied us with goods and helped us, when we were not very well able to help ourselves; and he has continued to do that in my case to the present time. If I am in debt to him, he never charges me for that debt; but I am at liberty to sell any animal off my farm if I choose, without him asking anything about it.

5029. Are you a little behind just now?-I am a good bit behind just now.

5030. But you could still get an advance of money if you needed it?-Yes. The shopkeeper told me when I was settling, that if I wanted from 1s. to 1, I could get it from him any time I asked for it.

5031. Do you get all your things at his shop?-Not altogether.

When I have a little money beside me, I can get them from any quarter. The fact is that I sometimes go there with money, and get the things cheaper than if I were getting them on credit. For instance, if I ask for a quarter pound of stick tobacco, I will get it for 1s. if I pay for it with money; while if it is marked down to me, it will be 1s. 1d. Now, we do think that is very unreasonable, as they have a profit both on our fish and on our goods, and we are very much dissatisfied about it.

Lerwick, January 9, 1872, GEORGE GOUDIE, examined.

5032. You are a fisherman and tenant on the estate of Mr. Grierson of Quendale?-Yes; at Garth.

5033. Have you heard the evidence of James Flawes?-Yes.

5034. Is it generally a correct statement of the obligation you are under to fish to Mr. Grierson, and of the way in which you settle for your fish?-So far as I know, it is.

5035. Do you get money paid to you when you want it in the course of the season?-Yes.

5036. But is the greater part of the price of your fish got out in goods from Mr. Grierson's shop?-Yes, the greater part.

5037. What balance did you receive at last settlement?-I had no balance to receive. It was against me.

5038. Had most of the men a balance against them at last settlement?-I suppose the greater part of them had.

5039. Have you got a note of your settlement?-No.

5040. Did you get any receipt or pa.s.s-book or account?-No.

5041. Is your account read over to you at the settlement?-Yes, if we want to have it read. The shop account, if we want it, will be read over to us.

5042. If it is not read over, how do you know whether it is correctly charged or not?-The men who do not keep a note of their accounts for themselves cannot know whether they are correct or not even by hearing them read over.

5043. Are you generally content to trust to the shopkeeper for the accuracy of your account?-Yes.

5044. Do you know anything about the quality of the meal that is sold there, and the price of it?-Yes.

5045. Have you been getting meal from the shop [Page 125]

during the last year or two?-Yes. Mr. Grierson's meal last year was from 2s. to 3s. per boll above what Mr. Gavin Henderson charged for his.

5046. Was the quality of Henderson's meal as good?-Yes; quite as good.

5047. Have you tried them both in your own house?-Yes.

5048. What was the price of the one and of the other?-Mr.

Grierson's bear-meal was 14s. per boll-that is Shetland grain; and Gavin Henderson charged 12. for Shetland meal also.

5049. Does Mr Grierson's shopkeeper charge the same price for meal all through the year?-Yes; for the same kind of meal.

5050. All the meal of the same kind in your account is charged at the same rate throughout the year?-Yes.

5051. But at Gavin Henderson's, it is charged to you according to the price at the time you buy it: the price varying at different periods of the same year?-Yes, it varies a little; but Mr.

Grierson's meal also varies when the price elsewhere varies.

5052. Then you may have meal charged at different rates in the same account?-Yes.

5053. Is there any other article, the price of which you have compared with what you could get it for elsewhere?-Yes, there is tobacco. If we buy a single ounce we pay 31/2d., and 2 oz. 6d., at Quendale store. In Gavin Henderson's we can get a single ounce for 3d., and 2 oz. are charged 6d. also.

5054. Is there anything else you can speak to?-No, I don't think there is anything else.

5055. Is there anything else you wish to say in addition to what James Flawes has said?-No.

Lerwick, January 9, 1872, CHARLES EUNSON, examined.

5056. You are a fisherman, and a tenant of Mr. Grierson's at Waterbru?-I am.

5057. Is that near Quendale?-It is about a mile and a half away.

5058. Have you heard the evidence of James Flawes and George Goudie?-Yes.

5059. Is it generally correct with regard to the system of dealing at the shop and for your fish?-I think so.

5060. Is there anything you wish to add to it?-Nothing with respect to that; but I had a little experience once with regard to liberty money. Before the time when Mr. Grierson and Mr. Bruce took the fishings into their own hands-for they were both in company when they started with that-we had enjoyed our liberty all along, and had never been obliged to fish for our proprietors; but at that time we were taken in hand along with the rest of Mr.

Grierson's tenants, and we had to fish for them. That lasted only for three years, and then the contract was broken, and each started on his own account.

5061. Was that before or after the statement which was made by Mr. Grierson at Quendale?-It was three years after it. When the contract was broken, Mr. Grierson had no place handy for us to land our fish at and deliver them to him, as we lived farther from Quendale than the rest of his tenants; and therefore at that time again we got our liberty and fished for whom we chose. He exacted nothing for that, and things went on in that way, I think, for three years; but at the end of that time Mr. Grierson took a station at Voe, on the east side of the parish, where he had had no place previously, and he told us that we would be obliged to deliver our fish to him, like the rest of his tenants. During the three years before we were put under that obligation, we had been fishing at the Ness, and had been at considerable trouble and expense in forcing a beach, and making other things right for curing our own fish. We were unwilling to lose the whole of that, and we applied to Mr. Grierson to allow us to continue to fish at the Ness; and he told us that if we paid three guineas of liberty money, he would allow us to fish there. We offered to pay that liberty money for one season, but it was a bad season; there were not many fish, and the price was low; and we went to Mr Grierson and asked him if he would take our fish. He consented to take them in a dry state; and he deducted 6d. per cwt. for the three guineas for every cwt. we delivered to him; so the result was that we had to pay him about 1 and upwards.

5062. In what year was that?-It is four years ago; it must have been in 1867.

5063. Then these fish would be settled for at the annual settlement?-Yes.

5064. Did you get any account of that year's settlement?-No; I would have got it if I had asked for it, but I never asked it.

5065. Who did you settle with that year?-With Mr. Grierson himself.

5066. You did not settle with Mr. Jamieson?-No; he had not come to the place at that time. There was another man there in the place which Mr. Jamieson now has, but we did not settle with him.

5067. Do you know anything about the price or quality of the meal at Quendale store as compared with other places?-It is a great deal better now than it used to be eleven or twelve years ago; it was not very satisfactory then, but it is not so bad now. The difference between the meal there and at other places is still something, but not so much so as it was.

5068. Do you get meal there?-Yes, frequently; and frequently at other places.

5069. I suppose you get it there, or at other places, according to the state of your account at the time?-Yes; or rather according to my interest. Mr. Grierson has never refused to give me anything reasonable that I asked him. He has been very generous in that way all along.

5070. Have you any boys on the beach?-I have one boy who has been engaged this year for the first time for Mr. Grierson.