783. Was that at the same time when you were asked to sign the
agreement?-Yes; it was on the same day.
784. Have you ever been told so since that time?-No; I have
never sought to fish for anybody else, nor asked my liberty since
then. I asked for my liberty that day when I was asked to sign the
agreement.
785. Was it given to you?-No. I offered to pay 20s. if they would
give me my liberty, but I could not get it for that.
786. Was any price fixed by them for that?-I offered 20s. for my
liberty to fish for whom I liked, or to cure for myself, and I could
not get it for the paying of the 20s.
787. Were you told what they would give it to you for?-No; they
would not say.
788. Do you wish to fish for anybody else?-I should certainly
wish to fish for anybody that I could get most from; but I should
like especially to be the master of my own fish, to cure them for
myself, and to sell them to the best advantage.
789. You mean you would like to catch and cure your own fish,
and then sell them, do you?-Yes; that is what I would like.
790. Why do you, not do it?-Because we would be ejected from
the place if we were not to deliver our fish to them.
791. What is your reason for supposing that?-Because we have
been told so.
792. Was it on the occasion you have mentioned, eight years ago,
that you were told so?-It was.
793. Have you been told since that you would be ejected if you did
not deliver your fish to Messrs. Hay & Co.?-I have never since
asked anything about it, so that I had no reason to be told so.
794. Has any person been ejected for selling fish to other
merchants than Hay & Co., or for curing his own fish?-I think
there have been such cases in Burra. I believe John Leask was
ejected for not serving as a fisherman to Messrs. Hay & Co.
795. How long ago was that?-I think it would be about thirteen
years since, or close thereby.
796. That is an old story. Has there been anybody ejected since?-
I don't remember any one at present.
797. Do you know from your own knowledge of any threats of
ejection having been made to parties who were fishing for
others?-Yes.
798. Who were so threatened?-We were threatened at that very
time, eight years ago, that we should be ejected if we did not sign
the agreement.
799. But do you know of any threats to particular parties for
particular offences since that time?-There never have been any
threats made to me, and I cannot remember exactly about them
having been used to others; but there are parties here who may
remember better about that than I do.
800. You say further in the letter, 'We can get no leases of our
farms, and we have to build and repair our own houses at our own
expense, without any compensation when leaving the farm, or
when ejected from it.' That does not exactly fall under this
inquiry, though it may perhaps indirectly affect it; but I suppose
the obligation to build and repair your own houses is part of the
bargain you enter into on taking the land?-It is.
801. Are you not at liberty to make your own bargain about the
land, the same as any other tenant in Scotland is?-I am not aware
of that.
802. Suppose you were to object to make such a bargain, could
you not leave the land and get a holding elsewhere?-It is not
likely we would get a holding elsewhere.
803. Why?-We would very likely be deprecated as not being
legal subjects, and the heritors would all know that we were not
convenient parties to give land to. What is one reason; and
another reason is, that places are sometimes not very easily got.
804. Do the same conditions exist on other properties in
Shetland?-So far as I know, they prevail all over the country, or
nearly so.
805. You think that if you were trying to move, you would not get
free of a condition of that sort?-We might get free of it for a
time, but by next year the parties to whose ground we had removed
might bind us down to the same thing.
806. But supposing all the men were united in refusing to agree to
such conditions, there could be no compulsion upon them?-They
have not the courage, I expect, to make such an agreement among
themselves.
807. To come to the more proper subject of the inquiry: you go on
to say, 'As we settle only once year, of course we have to buy from
our landlord's shop till the end of the year, at which time we have
seldom any money to get, except when we have better fishings
than ordinary.' Your settlement, I suppose, takes place about the
beginning of the year for the whole of the previous year?-Yes;
generally a month after the beginning of the year.
808. And at that time you settle with your landlords, Messrs. Hay
& Co., for all the provisions you have got from their shop?-Yes.
809. Where is their shop?-They have shops both at Lerwick and
Scalloway.
810. Does the same man keep an account at both shops?-The
same company keeps a store at Scalloway and a store at Lerwick.
811. But has the same man a book in both shops?-Yes; he has a
book in both shops.
812. The men deal at both?-Some men in the islands deal at
both, and others, again, have liberty to deal only at one.
813. Then, at the settlement time, you settle for all the provisions
you have got from the shops, and for the rent that is due for your
farm, and they set against that the price of the fish you have
delivered?-Yes.
814. And you say that generally the account against you is as large,
or larger, than that in your favour?-Taking it generally amongst
the tenants on the island, I believe it is.
815. Do you get money advanced to you in the course of the
season when you ask for it?-Yes, I have always, or generally, got
it when I asked for it.
816. Suppose that at the close of the fishing season-that is, in
September-you were to ask for all the money that was due for
your fish, or for a sum about equal to the value of your fish, would
you get it?-I don't expect I would get it.