Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 25

21. Or for provisions?-Yes.

22. And you always got what you wanted for these purposes?- Yes. When I asked for a few s.h.i.+llings of money for knitting, I always got it.

23. Do you live by yourself?-Yes.

24. And not in family with any others?-No.

25. Do you make all your living by knitting?-Yes.

26. You have no other means of getting money to pay your rent?- No.

27. You pay rent for a room?-Yes.

28. And you have always got enough from the employer to whom you sell your work to pay your room rent and your food?-Yes. It had to be enough, for I could not get anything else.

29. Do you mean by that, that you would have liked to have had more money to spend upon food?-Yes.

30. But you could only get goods?-Yes.

31. How much do you earn by knitting in a week or in a month?-I suppose perhaps about 10s. in a month. I would knit a shawl in a month, and the merchant would allow me that sum for knitting it.

32. Would it take you a month to knit a shawl, working at nothing else?-Yes. Of course I would not be always at it. People cannot sit and knit continually; but it would take a month to make it, working in an ordinary way.

33. When you take that shawl to the shop, price of say 10s. is put upon it, how much of that do you got in money, and how much in goods?-I have knitted a shawl for 10s, and I have got 5s. in money on it from Mr. Linklater.

34. Is that the usual proportion of money you get?-No, not always. Sometimes I don't get so much as that.

35. Did you ever ask for more?-No; I think never asked for any more on one shawl.

36. Supposing you were going with a shawl of that value what goods would you get? Take the last time you went, for instance: what did you get?-Cottons, or such things as I would be requiring. The last time I was there I bought nine yards of cotton at 81/2d. a yard.

37. Was that to make a dress with?-No; it was white cotton.

38. Did you ask for that?-Yes.

39. Did you want it for any particular purpose?-Yes; I wanted it.

40. What else did you get?-That is all I remember getting at that time.

41. Did you get the rest in money?-Yes.

42. Have you any reason to complain of the quality of the goods you get?-No, I have not.

43. Would you wish to go to any other shop if you got money?-I have no reason to leave Mr. Linklater, for he has always given me money as well as I could have got it from any other merchant, I believe.

44. What arrangement do you make about the supplying of the wool?-We make no arrangement.

45. Then you are supplied with the wool; and the 10s. is the price not of the shawl, but of your work upon it?-Yes.

46. Is that the usual way in which the knitting trade is carried on by the women in Shetland?-Yes.

47. Do they generally get the wool supplied to them that way?-I believe they do. At least it is the way with some of them. They won't want it.

48. They don't buy the wool themselves?-They are not able to buy the wool.

49. Have you worked for other merchants than Mr. Linklater?- No; only for him. I have knitted a few things for a lady, but I never knitted to any other merchant than Mr. Linklater.

50. Then you don't know how the other merchants deal with the women who knit for them?-No; I cannot say anything about that.

51. Would you prefer to sell your goods to a private lady, or to a stranger counting to Shetland, rather than have to take them to a merchant?-If I could get all money for them, I would prefer that.

52. Supposing there was a merchant here who paid for goods altogether in money, would you prefer to take your hosiery to him?-Yes; if I could get all money, I would prefer that.

53. Is there no such person?-No; there is no such person here as that. A lady may buy a thing or two at a time, and give money for them, but that could not be a general thing.

54. How do you know that you cannot got money from the merchants? Is it because you have attempted to get it, or simply because you have a sort of understanding to that effect?-The merchants don't allow all money for the knitting.

55. Have they told you that?-Yes.

56. Who has told you?-Just the whole of them. None of them pay wholly in money for anything.

57. But who has told you that? I think you said you had never been refused?-I never was refused a few s.h.i.+llings on anything by Mr.

Linklater. When I took home work to him and asked him for a few s.h.i.+llings of money, I always got it.

58. But you would rather have it all in money?-Yes.

59. And you cannot get it?-No.

60. How do you know that?-They won't give it to us. If we buy worsted ourselves, and knit the work, and take it to them, they won't give any money at all.

61. Have you tried that?-Yes.

62. You have knitted a shawl with your own worsted, and gone to them to sell it; and they would not allow money on it?-Yes.

63. Has Mr. Linklater done that?-Yes.

64. Did he refuse to give you money for that shawl?-Yes.

65. But he would pay for the shawl in goods?-Yes, if I would sell it.

66. When did that happen?-I could not just remember the time; but it has been often.

67. You did that yourself?-Yes, I have done that myself; and I have got shawls from friends to sell, and have gone out with them, and the merchants would not give money on them.

68. Is there anything else you want to say?-No.

[Page 3]

Lerwick, January 1, 1872, JANET IRVINE, examined.