1524-5. Did you get any part of that sum in money?-14s.
1526. Was that all you asked for in money?-Yes.
1527. And you got the rest in goods?-Yes.
1528. Did you want these goods for your own use?-No; I took
some moleskins to sell.
1529. Was that because you could not get the rest in money?-
Yes.
1530. Did you ask for more in money?-She did not want to give
me more.
1531. Did you ask for more?-I did not ask for it, because I knew I
would not get it.
1532. Did she say she would give you that much, without your
asking?-Yes.
1533. What did you do with the moleskins?-I sold them.
1534. How much of them did you take?-21/2 yards.
1535. What was the price of them?-2s. 8d. a yard.
1536. Was there anything else you bought for the purpose of
selling?-Yes; I bought some cotton.
1537. Have you sold it?-Yes.
1538. Did you get as much for it as you paid?-Yes.
1539. Did you get a little more?-No; no more. I thought it a
favour to get the same price.
1540. Did you know any person who would take these goods from
you at the time you got them, or did you buy them on the chance of
selling them?-No; I knew a person who would buy them from
me.
1541. Is that the way you generally deal when you have shawls to
sell?-Yes.
1542. You get some things that you want, and some things that
your neighbours want, and as much as you can in money?-Yes.
1543. Do you often get tea for the purpose of selling it?-I get it
when I ask it; but I only ask it when I know of a person who will
take it from me for what they have done for me.
1544. How do you purchase the provisions-the meal and bread-
that you want?-When I sell anything that I get for my work, I buy
them with the money.
1545. But if you don't have the money, what do you do?-I don't
have money at the time, I go down to a shop and get it from them
until I can get the money to pay for it.
1546. What did you do with the 14s. that you got for the shawls
from Miss Leisk?-It would go for worsted to make other things.
1547. Have you always to pay money for your worsted?-Yes.
1548. You don't get provisions, either meal or bread, at the shops
where you sell your shawls?-No.
1549. Is that never done in Lerwick?-No; I never had it done to
me. Those who buy the shawls keep nothing of that kind.
1550. Would you be content to take a lower price [Page 31] for
your shawls if you were paid for them in money instead of
goods?-Yes.
1551. Have the merchants ever offered you a lower price for your
shawls in money?-No.
1552. Have you ever asked them to do that, or tried to get them to
do it?-I knew that I need not try that, because I would not have
got it.
1553. Do you manage to sell many of your shawls privately in the
town, or to visitors in the summer?-No.
1554. Is there not a good deal of that done in Lerwick?-I believe
some people do that, but I don't do it.
1555. Is it not an advantage to get them sold in that way?-Yes; I
think it would be an advantage to get ready money.
1556. Do charitable ladies sometimes take the shawls-and get
them sold to their friends at a distance?-I can say nothing about
that, because I never sold them in that way.
1557. Do you give receipts for the goods or money which you get
as the price of your shawls?-No.
1558. The transaction is all done across the counter, without any
writing?-Yes.
1559. Do you know whether the shopkeeper enters the price of the
shawls, and the amount of the goods sold to you in return for them,
in any book? Do you see whether that is done?-No, I don't see it.
1560. You have never noticed that?-No.
Lerwick, January 3, 1872, MARY HUTCHISON, examined.
1561. You live in Lerwick?-Yes.
1562. Are you in the habit of knitting?-Yes.
1563. Do you knit with your own wool?-Yes.
1564. Do you sell your knitting in Lerwick?-I sell some of it in
Lerwick; but I send the most of it south, to Mr. John F. White,
Edinburgh.
1565. Do you also act as an agent for him in Lerwick, by taking in
things from other people?-Yes; a little.
1566. How are you paid for the articles you send to him?-I am
paid in ready money.
1567. Is it remitted to you by a post office order or a bank cheque,
as the case may be?-Yes.
1568. How much do you send to him?-I never send a large
quantity. I just send what he tells me: a few shawls at a time.
1569. He gives you orders which you execute?-Yes.
1570. Do many women who knit come and sell their shawls to
you?-No; I don't buy shawls. I give out wool to be knitted.
1571. How do you purchase your wool?-I buy it for money.
1572. From merchants in Lerwick?-Yes. Sometimes I buy from
Mr. Sinclair, but generally I send to the North Isles for it, to people
who buy it in there.
1573. There are people in the North Isles who buy the wool from
their neighbours and sell it to you, such as Mrs. Smith, who was
spoken of by a previous witness?-Yes; much the same.
1574 Have you dealt with her?-No.
1575. Do you pay the women who work for you in money?-Yes.
1576. You don't keep a store?-No, nothing except the money; or
whatever they require they got it.
1577. Do you make a bargain when you give out the wool, or fix
price when you see the work?-I buy the wool, and employ them
to knit it.
1578. You do not merely act as agent for Mr. White?-No; I just
buy the wool and employ the women, and pay them according to
the size of the shawl.
1579. How many women are working for you in that way?-I
cannot say exactly.
1580. Are there about half a dozen?-Yes, just about that.
1581. Do you find that the women here are anxious to work for
you?-Yes; they are anxious to get money.
1582. You think they would much rather work, for you than for a
merchant who keeps a shop?-Yes; I am never at a loss for them.
When I am in a hurry I always get them to help me, because I pay
in money.
1583. I suppose you get the choice of the knitters?-I don't know
about that. I just get done what I have to do.
1584. Have you often been applied to by women who were
anxious to work for you rather than for the shops?-Yes; very
often.
1585. Do they tell you that it is a kindness or charity to employ
them?-Yes; because they could not get the money out of the
shops.
1586. Do you know, from your own observation of the system, as
to the mode of dealing at the shops?-I often sell shawls in the
shops, although I am not in the habit of going with them myself, so
that I am often dealing a little in the shops.
1587. You send them by some other person?-Yes: I employ a girl
to go and sell them for me.
1588. In that case, how is the transaction carried out?-I just get a
line out of the shop, and get goods for it.
1589. Is the line in your name?-No; it is just a simple line or
I O U, and I send it back: to the shop at any time when I want the
goods.
1590. Have you any of these lines with you?-I have one at home,
which I will send in.
1591. From whom did you get it?-From Mr Robert Sinclair.
1592. Have you sometimes got these lines from knitters?-Yes;
often.
1593. They wanted money, and could not get it at the shops, and
brought their lines to you?-Yes; I have often taken a line and
given them money for it in order to meet their necessities, because
they would not get money elsewhere.
1594. You kept these lines until you could make some use of them
yourself?-Yes. Whenever I required any little thing, I sent to the
shop for it, and paid for it with these lines.
1595. Have you any of these lines belonging to other women in
your hands just now?-I have not.
1596. How much money may you have had lying out in that way at
a time?-Not very much; perhaps a few shillings now and then.
1597. Are the lines generally for a large amount?-No; from 8s. to
7s. or 8s., or thereabout.
1598. May you have had two or three of them at a time?-Perhaps
one or two.
1599. Have you known other, people taking lines in the same
way?-Yes;, I believe there are many who do it.
1600. Do you know any one who is often applied to in that way?-
I cannot say exactly; but I have often taken a line from Miss
Elizabeth Robertson, who was examined on Monday, and given
her money for it, because she was in necessity.
1601. Does Janet Irvine knit for you?-Yes.
1602. Have you taken lines, from her?-No; she is a fish-girl, and
does not knit much.
1603. In selling your own shawls to the shops, have you asked for
money?-No; but I have told the girl who went with the shawls to
sell them for me to ask for a shilling or two, and she said she need
not ask for it because she would not get it.
1604. But that was a case of sale. You know nothing about the
case where, the wool has been given out by the shops?-No, I
don't know about that, because it is long since I knitted any for the
shops.
1605. Do you know of any other person in Lerwick who sends
hosiery south in the same way?-Yes; there are plenty of them
through the town.
1606. Do they send the hosiery, south direct to White or to other
merchants in Edinburgh or Glasgow?-Yes; there are, plenty who
do that; but I never have any dealings with any one except Mr.
White.
1607. Who else in Lerwick deals in that way with [Page 32] the
shops in the south?-There is a Mrs. James Henry in Burn's Lane,
and a Mrs. Elizabeth Anderson, and several other people.
Lerwick, January 3, 1872, CATHERINE BORTHWICK, examined.
1608. Are you a knitter in Lerwick?-I am.
1609. Do you buy your own wool?-No.
1610. Who do you knit for?-For Mr. Robert Sinclair, Mr.
Thomas Nicholson, and sometimes for Miss Robina Leisk.