Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 47

1057. Is that because Messrs. Hay have ceased to require payment of liberty money?-Yes; they thought the thing was not legal, and they have given it up.

1058. Are your sons living in your house still?-One of them is, but the other one is married, and is away from me.

1059. And the one who is living with you goes to the Faroe fishing?-Yes.

1060. Have you ever cured fish for yourself?-No.

1061. Then you don't know from your own experience, [Page 22]

whether you would have a larger profit if you did cure them on your own account?-No; not from my own experience.

1062. Except when you signed the doc.u.ment you have mentioned, was there any occasion on which you were told by any of the firm of Hay & Co. that you were bound to fish for them only?-I don't remember any other time.

Lerwick, January 2, 1872, THOMAS CHRISTIE, examined.

1063. You are a fisherman in Burra, and a tenant under Messrs.

Hay?-Yes.

1064. You have been present during the examination of the two preceding witnesses?-Yes.

1065. Do you concur with them as to the most of the facts which they have stated?-Yes.

1066. Did you sign the obligation which has been spoken to?-I signed it once, about eight years ago.

1067. Did you do so willingly, or did you refuse first?-I did so willingly.

1068. Had you not received warning to leave your ground first?- No, I don't think it.

1069. Were you ever told that you would have to leave your ground if you did not sign it?-Yes; I suppose I was.

1070. Have you complied ever since with that obligation to fish for Hay & Co.?-Yes.

1071. You did not try to break it in any way?-No.

1072. Have you ever had to pay liberty money for yourself or any of your children?-No.

1073. Have you cured fish for yourself?-No.

1074. Is it your opinion, as well as that of the other witnesses, that you would make a larger profit if you cured your own fish?-I think we would.

1075. Can you give me any reason for supposing that?-No; no particular reason, because I never cured them.

1076. But you know that is the general belief?-Yes.

1077. Have you any knitters in your family?-Yes.

1078. The letter you have signed says that they are invariably paid in goods, both for the goods they sell, and also for their wages when engaged to knit for the hosiery dealers: is that so?-Yes.

1079. Have you ever sold any articles for your daughters?-Yes.

1080. Do you sometimes take the goods they knit the shops and sell them for them?-Yes.

1081. Where have you taken them to?-To Linklater.

1082. Do you keep an account with him?-No.

1083. You just take the article in and sell it?-Yes, and get what they want for it.

1084. Do your daughters knit with their own wool?-No, they knit with wool supplied by Mr. Linklater.

1085. Is it through you that the dealing generally takes place?- No; not through me.

1086. Your daughters generally manage it themselves?-Yes.

1087. But you have brought in articles which they have knitted?- Yes; on one or two occasions.

1088. On these occasions what took place?-I was just ordered to get some things from the shop, and I got them.

1089. Did you ever ask for money?-No, they never expected to get money, they never asked for it.

1090. You were told the articles that you were to bring home, and the value that was to be put upon the shawls?-Yes.

1091. Did you not leave the fixing of the price to the merchant?- He knew the price himself. It was marked down in the book, what I brought in for them was added to the account.

1092. Do your daughters have a book?-No; but the merchant enters these things in his own book.

1093. Then they have an account with Mr. Linklater-which is kept in his book?-Yes.

1094. What is the name of your daughter?-Elizabeth Christie.

1095. Is the account in Mr. Linklater's book kept in her name?- Yes.

1096. You say that you buy your goods until the end of the year from your landlord's shop: is it from the shop at Scalloway or in Lerwick that you generally buy?-I buy from both places.

1097. Is there an account in your name in both shops?-Yes; I can go to any place I like.

1098. And you get the same cla.s.s of goods at both?-I don't think there is much difference.

1099. Do you get every kind of goods at both shops?-Yes.

Lerwick, January 2, 1872, CHARLES SINCLAIR, examined.

1100. You are a fisherman in Burra?-Yes.

1101. Do you hold any land there?-No, I have only a room, and pay rent for it, in an old mansion-house on the island.

1102. To whom do you pay rent?-To Messrs. Hay.