283. Suppose you had got 15s. in cash, would you have purchased
your goods there?-Yes. Whatever wearing goods I required, I
would not have purchased them anywhere else. I am quite
satisfied with Mr. Sinclair's goods; but I am always needing
money so much that I have always to ask it.
284. Does this system of not getting money, or being paid in
goods, make you buy more dress or clothing than you would
otherwise care for?-Yes; I would not need one half the clothes I
get, if I could get money.
285. That is to say, you would prefer to take the money, and spend
it upon food?-Yes.
286. Or lay it by?-I should not think much of laying it by, if I
could only get enough to serve the present time.
287. Have you handed the I O U's to anybody else than Miss
Robertson?-Yes; to lots of people.
288. For money?-Yes; for money, and for peats or fuel for the
winter. My acquaintances will sometimes take a line from me to
oblige me, because I have no money to give them.
289. Name one of them?-John Ridling, Burn's Lane, is one of
them.
290. What would he do with it?-Mrs. Ridling would send it to the
shop and purchase anything she wanted.
291. Have you known these lines passing through more hands than
one before coming to the shop?-Yes; they would do that.
292. For instance, if Mrs. Ridling wanted money instead of goods
at the shop, might she pass the line to somebody who would give
her money for it?-No, not that I know of.
293. You said you had known the lines passing from hand to hand
before going back to the shop?-Yes; sometimes they do that.
294. That is to say, if you handed a line to a person for money, that
person might sell it again for money to another neighbour?-I do
not know of selling the lines for money; but they might pass from
one person to another in a quiet way.