719. Did you ever complain about any of the sums brought out in
the shop account as not being due by you?-No, I could not do
that, because I could scarcely tell whether it was right or wrong.
720. In fact you trusted to the honesty of the shopkeeper?-I was
obliged to do that.
721. Then you say that you never see any statement of your
account for goods supplied to you at the shop at all?-None,
except the total. The total is handed in to Mr. Bruce at settling
time.
722. Is there anything else you wish to say?-There is one thing I
would like to ask. In consequence of my coming here, I expect
nothing but that I will be turned off; and I would ask how I am to
proceed.
723. I don't think you need be afraid of that; but if there is
anything done to you in consequence of the evidence which you
have given here, you had better write and let me know. Of course
I am only to be here for a short time; but it would be my duty to
communicate the fact to some of my superiors. There is one other
thing I would like to mention: that any amount of liberty would be
of very little account in Shetland, so long as the proprietors have
power to turn off men at any time when they have a mind to do so.
724. At the end of the summer fishing is there generally a balance
in your favour at the accounting between you and the landlord?-
Sometimes there is, and sometimes not. I believe I generally stand
about half and half.
725. Do you mean that if your fishing is worth £18, your account
at the store and your rent will be about £9 or £10?-No; there are
some years in which my account at the store, and my rent, are
above the whole amount of my year's earnings,-while there are
other years when my earnings are above my shop account and rent.
726. When the year's earnings are less than your account, is the
balance written down against you for the next year?-Yes.
727. Then that is an additional reason why you are bound to fish to
your landlord, because when you are in his debt you cannot very
well sell your fish to another?-If we had our liberty, we could sell
our fish to another merchant.
728. But suppose you had liberty, would not the fact of your being
in debt to your landlord still be a sort of obligation upon you to
fish for him?-It would still bind us, of course.
729. Does that cause operate, in fact, to tie the fishermen to the
same merchant?-When the men have had their liberty, that has
been the case.
730. Was it the case before Mr. Bruce took the fishing into his
own hands?-Yes.
731. So that many men in those times would be unable to sell their
fish to another merchant than Messrs. Hay or Mr. Robertson, who
had the fishing then?-Yes; of course there were times when the
fishing was small, and perhaps men required a lot of meal, and
they could not get it without going into debt; and when merchants
supported them in that way, the men could not do better than hand
over their fish to the merchants to whom they were in debt.
732. So that there was even then a certain obligation on the men to
fish to a particular merchant?-[Page 15] Yes. When a man is in
debt, he is under an obligation to clear his debt.
733. But your complaint is, that you are much more strictly bound
now?-Yes; there was no obligation for a man to clear his debt
with any merchant before now.
734. Was there then any obligation to purchase at that merchant's
store?-None.
735. Except that perhaps they would not get credit elsewhere?-
Exactly.
736. In those times did the men get advances in money during the
season when they asked them?-Yes.