Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 26

69. Do you live in Lerwick?-Yes.

70. Your mother is a widow?-Yes.

71. Do you support yourself by knitting?-Yes; and partly by working outside at the fish.

72. What have you to do with the fish?-I help to cure them in the fish-curing establishment.

73. For whom do you knit?-Sometimes for myself, and sometimes for Miss Mary Hutchison.

74. Is she a dealer in hosiery?-Yes; she knits shawls herself, and sends them south.

75. Is she an agent?-Yes.

76. For whom?-I think she is agent for Mr. White, in Edinburgh.

77. Do you sometimes work for others?-No; not very often. I sometimes work for myself when I have any time. I knit a veil or a necktie, but in the summer 1 have not much time for that.

78. Do you knit these things for the purpose of selling them?- Yes.

79. Do you sometimes sell to the merchants in Lerwick?-Yes.

80. To whom?-To any one who is buying anything.

81. Do you generally get money for your shawls?-No; I got money from Miss Hutchison when I ask for it.

82. Do you get the price all in money from her?-When I want it all in money, I get it all in money, and when I want any other thing, she gives it to me.

83. Do you generally ask for it all in money from her?-Yes; I generally ask for it in money, because that is the only way we have to get it.

84. Does she deal in goods?-No. She generally brings home a little tea.

85. Does she only deal in tea?-In nothing else, so far as I know.

86. Then you sometimes get payment from her in tea?-Yes.

When I ask it, I get it; but when I ask money, I get money.

87. When you sell to the merchants in Lerwick, do you get payment in money?-No; I never asked it, because I know they would not give it to us, as it is not the custom. They do not give it here.

88. Do you get part of it in money?-No; I get no money.

89. You have to take it all in goods?-Yes.

90. Do you prefer to get it in goods or in money?-I would like to get money if I could; but I can't get it.

91. And Miss Hutchison is not always ready to buy, from you?- No; she does not buy anything but her own. She brings home worsted, or buys worsted here, and I get it from her to knit.

92. What you sell to the merchants you knit with your own worsted?-Yes.

93. Where do you buy your worsted?-From the shops.

94. Which shops?-I used to buy from Mr. Brown, but he is not alive now; and I buy from Mr. Sinclair.

95. Do you pay ready-money for your worsted when you buy it?- Yes.

96. Do you not get worsted from the shops to knit into articles for the merchants?-No.

97. You sell to the shops only when Miss Hutchison has not got work for you?-Yes. It is only when I have it of my own that I sell to the shops.

98. Have you asked for money instead of goods at any of the shops?-No; I never asked for it.

99. Your sister also works in the same way?-Yes; she knits, but she does not work outside. She is not here to-day.

100. When was the last time you took anything of your own knitting to a shop to sell? Was it long ago?-No; it is not long,- perhaps about two or three weeks ago.

101. What was it?-A necktie.

102. Where did you take it?-I took it to Mr. Sinclair's. I could not get it sold that night, because he was not in, and the servants could not take it in his absence. I took it home with me.

103. What did you do with it?-The woman who dressed it sold it for me at Mr. Sinclair's. She generally dresses things, and sometimes sells them for me.

104. What is dressing?-Getting them sorted for sale. After being knitted, they are washed and dressed and starched.

105. Do you give the woman who dresses the articles a commission to sell them?-Yes; she sells them for me.

106. Why is that?-Because she is generally in the way of doing it.

She can do it better than I can.

107. Do you mean that she can make a better bargain?-She dresses goods for the merchants, and sometimes she sells them too.

She sold that article for me.

108. Who is the woman?-Mrs. William Arcus; she lives at the Docks.

109. What was the price put upon that necktie which she sold?- Eighteenpence.

110. What did you get for it?-I just got anything I required.

111. What did you require at that time?-I got a little tea, and the rest in cotton.

112. Did you want the tea?-Yes.

113. Have you sometimes asked the merchants for goods which they would not give you?-No.

114. When you go to a merchant to sell a shawl, can you get any kind of goods you want?-I don't sell any shawls, because I don't have any of my own. I have not had any of my own for a long time.

115. But when you go to sell any of the goods you have knitted, can you get anything you want?-I cannot get money, but I can get anything else, except worsted. They won't give it.

116. Will they not give you worsted for your knitted goods?-No.

They won't give it for the hosiery. They want money for the worsted.