Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 27

117. Do they give any reason for that?-I don't know. They say it is a money article.

118. Does that mean ready-money?-Yes.

119. It is cotton or tea you generally get?-Yes; or any other small thing except money. We can get anything except it.

120. You work at other things; so that I suppose you have money from your wages in the fish-curing establishment for the purpose of paying your rent, and things that you must pay in money?-Yes.

121. You get your wages there in money?-Yes; I get money for that.

122. You work for Mr. Leask?-Yes.

123. He does not keep a store of any kind?-No; he has no store, but he keeps a shop.

124. Have you to take goods for your wages there?-No; I can either get money or goods, whichever I want.

125. But what do you do in point of fact? Do you take money or do you take goods from Mr. Leask's shop?-I take money.

126. Always?-Not always. I take other things too, because they keep everything there that is required.

127. You have no complaint to make about that?-No.

128. You are quite content to go to Mr. Leask's shop for what you want?-Yes.

129. When you buy things there, you pay your money across the counter?-Yes.

130. You have got that money from the pay-clerk previously?- Yes.

131. Where is that money paid to you?-In the shop.

132. In which shop?-In Mr. Leask's shop. We get it in the office, and we pay it in the shop. He has two shops there.

133. Is the office at the Docks?-No; it is in the town.

134. Are you expected to go to Mr. Leask's shop when you get your wages?-No; we can go anywhere we like.

135. How long in the year do you work for Mr. Leask?- Sometimes, when the vessels get fish early, we begin soon. We begin in the spring.

136. Will you work there for six months?-Some [Page 4] times longer. We sometimes begin in spring, and work until after Martinmas.

137. During all that time you won't do much knitting?-No.

138. But you get your wages every week?-Yes.

139. How much do you get?-1s. a day.

140. And that is paid weekly on Sat.u.r.days at the office?-Yes.

141. Do you take that money home?-Yes; what I don't pay away.

142. You perhaps want something on the Sat.u.r.day, and go into the shop for it?-Yes; what I want I go into the shop for.

143. How much of it do you generally take home after making your purchases?-I cannot say.

144. As a general thing, do you spend the half of it in the shop?- Yes; I spend the half of it.

145. Every week?-No; sometimes it is more, and sometimes less.

146. Have you ever been told that you ought to go to the shop?- No.

147. Or that you are expected to go there?-No.

148. Would you still be employed there in the same way although you went and bought your goods elsewhere?-They don't bid any of their people buy out of the shop. They just please themselves.

Mr. Leask just gives the money, and he does not care where you buy from.

Lerwick, January 1, 1872, Mrs. CHRISTINA WILLIAMSON, examined.

149. You are a widow, and live in the Widows' Asylum in Lerwick?-Yes.

150. Are you in the habit of knitting goods for sale?-Yes.

151. Do you knit for any particular merchant?-No; I knit for myself.

152. Do you buy your own wool?-Yes; I generally get wool, and get a woman to spin it for me.

153. Who is that woman?-Mrs. Irvine, Burn's Close.

154. Is that the mother of the last witness?-Yes.

155. Do you buy the wool from a farmer?-Yes.

156. And then you knit it for yourself, and take the shawls and sell them?-Yes.

157. Do you do that upon an order, or just upon chance?-Just upon chance.

158. Who do you generally sell to?-I have some unsold just now.

The last one is unsold.

159. How long have you had it?-I have had that one lying for a twelvemonth.

160. Why don't you sell it?-Because I can't get money for it.

161. Who have you asked to buy it?-I have asked none lately.

162. Who have you asked at all?-I have asked no one in the town.

163. Why do you know you would not get money?-Because it is not the custom to give it, and therefore did not ask it.