Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 59

1627. Is that the only way you have of getting a living?-No; sometimes I have to take things out of the shop and sell them for money.

1628. To whom do you sell them?-To any neighbour or any person who requires them.

1629. Do you do that often?-No; I have not done it for the last two years, because some of the ladies in the town have employed me to knit for money.

1630. Do you prefer to sell to ladies in the town?-Yes.

1631. Are the goods which you knit for them for their own use?- Yes; or perhaps they get an order from the south, and they will rather put the money our way than go to the merchants with it.

1632. Do many ladies befriend you in that way?-Not many.

There is Mrs. Walker, the Rev. Mr. Walker's lady.

1633. Who else?-I have not done anything for any other person for money.

1634. But Mrs. Walker pays you in money?-Yes; and the same amount as I would get in goods from the shops.

1635. Are the women who knit anxious to get customers of that kind?-Yes.

1636. Would you be content with a lower price for your shawls if you could get it in cash?-Yes.

1637. Have you ever been to take a lower price and get the money?-No.

1638. Have you ever offered to take less for your shawls if you could get money?-Yes.

1639. To whom did you make that offer?-I offered a white half- shawl to Mr. Robert Sinclair, and I also offered a white half-shawl to Mr. Thomas Nicholson.

1640. When?-The one I sold to Mr. Nicholson was in the spring, and that to Mr. Sinclair was about two years back.

1641. How much less did you offer to take in these cases?-2s.

The shawl was worth 1, and I offered it for 18s.

1642. Was anything due to you by Mr. Sinclair at the time you asked for the s.h.i.+lling?-Yes; I think he was due me about 5s. 6d.

at that time.

1643. Do you mean that you took goods to the shop worth 5s.

6d.?-No; he was due me about 5s., 6d. at that time. I was knitting a shawl for him, and was settling up for it.

1644. Was the shawl not finished?-Yes; I brought the shawl ready, and I was settling up. I had all the price of the shawl to get, and I took some goods, and then there was about 5s. 6d. over; and I asked him for 1s., and he said he could not give it to me.

1645. How did you square the balance at that time?-I just took something to give to a girl who had been working in our peats.

1646. What did you take?-A petticoat.

1647. Was it worth. 5s. 6d.?-Yes; the girl took it because she knew I could not get the money.

Lerwick, January 3, 1872, MRS. MARGERY MANSON or ANDERSON, examined.

1648. Are you a knitter in Lerwick?-Yes.

1649. Do you knit with your own wool?-I have done so for the last twelve months.

1650. Before that, who did you knit for?-For Mr. Robert Linklater.

1651. You got wool from him?-Yes.

1652. Were you paid for your work in goods, or in money?-In goods.

1653. Did you get any money from him that you asked for, if you, wanted some?-I knew that I need not ask him for any, because I would not have got it.

1654. You are married, and therefore you don't spend all your time in knitting?-No.

1655. Why did you give up knitting for Mr. Linklater?-Because I could not do with it; it did not pay me.

1656. How did it not pay you?-I could not get money.

1657. But were the goods you got not as good you as money?- No.

1658. Were they not worth the money value that was put upon them?-No.

1659. Why was that?-I did not have money to live upon.

1660. But your husband keeps you?-No; he is sickly, and I have to do for myself.

1661. You have heard the evidence of the preceding witnesses, Catherine Borthwick and Margaret Tulloch?-Yes.

1662. They have explained the way of dealing here. Is that the way you have been accustomed to?-Yes.

1663. Have you anything different to say about the way in which you were paid for shawls that you knitted with Mr. Linklater's wool?-No.

1664. Did you ever get lines when you would not take goods?- No; I had a pa.s.s-book.

1665. Have you got it here?-No.

1666. Was it kept in the same way as Margaret Tulloch's?-Yes.

1667. The goods you got were entered at one end, and the shawls you gave in were entered at the other, and a balance was made now and then?-Yes.

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1668. How often was your book balanced?-I don't remember.

1669. Did you sign your pa.s.s-book as a receipt?-No; he signed it.

1670. You have had no pa.s.s-book since you began to knit with your own wool?-No.

1671. Where do you buy your wool now?-I have a woman spinning for me, and I buy the worsted from her.

1672. You pay her in ready money?-Yes.