Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 35

494. What does he supply them with?-Just with material. He also keeps meal; and they take it from him, more or less, as their families require it. He keeps other things besides, such as lines, hooks, and tar for the boats.

495. Are these things which you get from the store marked down in pa.s.s-books of your own, or in the books of the store?-We can have a book for ourselves if we like. I did not bring mine with me.

496. Does the storekeeper mark the things in your pa.s.s-book as you get them?-Yes.

497. Are the quant.i.ties of fish also marked into that pa.s.s-book as they are delivered?-No; they are entered into another book which the factor keeps, and we keep the accounts in a book for ourselves.

498. You mark them down for yourselves in another book?-Yes.

499. Is that the general practice among the fishermen in your locality?-It is; and then we compare the quant.i.ties with the factor before we go up to settle.

500. Then each fisherman has two books-a pa.s.sbook for his dealings with the store, and a book of his own in which he marks down the quant.i.ties of fish delivered?-Yes.

501. When you came to settle, do you generally get a large balance paid to you in cash?-Every year is not alike. If it has been a bad fishing season, and if the crops are light, then perhaps the accounts will not square. But there have been two or three good seasons lately.

502. When the accounts do not square, you mean that, you may be in debt to the fish-merchant?-Yes; 2 or so.

503. And he allows that to over, and to be paid next year?-Yes.

504. But you have no serious complaint to make about that system?-No; we cannot complain about the regulations in Shetland.

505. Could you make a better bargain with anybody else?-I don't think we could-in Shetland.

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506. Is that your fault, or the fault of the fish-merchant?-I think, for my own part, I would stick into any place where I could get the best bargain. We have been fishing for some years to some of the merchants who would give 3d. or 6d.

per cwt. more for the fish than we could get in Lerwick, and therefore we have stuck by them.

507. Suppose another merchant were at hand at Cunningsburgh, would you be quite at liberty to sell your fish to him?-Yes.

508. Is there any such merchant there within reach of you?-There is another merchant close by, named James Smith. Part of the men on the beach I belong to fish for him, and part to Thomas Tulloch.

509. Are there any other stores than Mr. Tulloch's at Cunningsburgh or in the neighbourhood?-There are some small shops that we could get small groceries from, but I do not do much with them.

510. Suppose you were to agree at the beginning of the season to sell your fish to another than Mr. Tulloch, would you have any difficulty in getting credit at his store for your supplies?-He would not like that very well.

511. Would you not get your supplies there?-No, not unless the man who asked them was one he was well acquainted with.

512. Would you be able to get them anywhere else?-I don't know. I don't think I would try to get them, unless at the place I was sending my fish to.

513. But if you had not the money yourself, would you get credit for your supplies during the summer from any other shopkeeper, either in Lerwick or Cunningsburgh?-Yes. All the fish-merchants we deal with in Lerwick I can get a little credit from up to the present day.

514. And in that way you are not bound over to Mr. Tulloch in any way?-No. We can leave him this season if we have a mind.

515. You were to say something about the herring fishing: I thought there was not much herring fishing here?-There will be nothing at all this season in Shetland. We generally fished to Messrs. Hay & Co. when we were in it.

516. Have you any complaint to make about it?-Much the same as about the ling fishing The don't like to give a stated price.

517. Where do you deliver the fish when you go to the herring fishing?-There is a small ghioe* close by our own place at Cunningsburgh. Hay & Co. send down a cooper there, and they have a booth for their stores close by.

518. What is the bargain you make with them about that?-They generally wish us to go to the fishing, and they will pay us accordingly.

519. What do you do about a boat?-We use the same boat as we have in the ling fishing.

520. Then your only complaint about the herring fishery is, that you don't know the price until settling time?-Yes. But there has been no herring fishery on the island at all this season, to speak of.

521. Do you require advances of money at all during the season?- We are often in want of a few shillings.

522. How do you get that?-The man we are dealing with just now (Mr. Tulloch) has never said no, so far as what we asked was reasonable. I got an advance of 2 from him last season to buy a cow. We were out of milk that season, and he did not refuse me the money when I asked it.

523. Do you get advances from Messrs. Hay also when you need it?-1 don't think they are so very frank about that, and I don't like to ask it; but they will give us any small thing we need from their shops.

* -A deep ravine which admits the sea.-.

524. Do they supply you with goods also?-Yes.

525. Where is their store from which you get the goods?-There is their shop in town.

526. Do you come to Lerwick for them?-Yes.

527. Do you run an account there?-Sometimes we do, and sometimes not; but we have not much to do with Messrs. Hay on that footing.

528. You said that your reason for coming here and offering to give evidence to-day was, that you were afraid of young Mr. Bruce taking the fishing into his own hands?-Yes; that is the thing we find to be most oppressive, if it was coming to be the case.

529. Is it the general opinion in the country that he has undertaken to manage the fishings on his father's estates?-He addressed himself so in the note he gave us. He called himself general merchant and fish-curer.

530. Did he give you intimation of that one year at rent time?- Yes; that was last year.

531. But he has not yet taken the management of the fishing at Cunningsburgh?-No.

532. Has he fishing establishments elsewhere?-He has-at Dunrossness. He has taken all the tenants there into his own hands. The property, I daresay, is twice as large as Cunningsburgh.

533. Do you know from your own knowledge whether the tenants there are obliged to fish for him?-Yes; they are fishing to himself.

534. Have they no choice but to fish for him?-I don't think it. As far as my knowledge goes, they have not.

535. Are you acquainted with any of the fishermen there?-I know a little about them, from pa.s.sing them on the road.

536. Have they ever complained to you about the state of matters at Dunrossness?-I cannot say much about that, except that they think they would have been fully better with their freedom.

537. Have they not got their freedom?-They cannot have their freedom when they are fishing to him.

538. But they may fish to him of their own free will?-They might; but I think he has gripped them so that they cannot have their freedom.

539. That, however, is only your own supposition?-I think it is true. It is so true that both the merchant and us are afraid that he will grip us too.

Lerwick, January 1, 1872, SIMON LAURENSON, examined.