Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 115

4140. Do you knit for any person in town?-Yes; have knitted for Mr. Robert Linklater for four years.

4141. Do you knit with his wool?-Yes.

4142. And are you paid in goods?-Yes.

4143. Do you ever get money?-No.

4144. Have you ever asked for it?-I asked for it one time, and he said he expected money from me, and not I from him.

4145. That was for goods you were to get?-Yes.

4146. But you gave him hosiery instead of money, and you got his goods?-Yes.

4147. Have you ever disposed of any of the goods you got in that way, in order to provide yourself with provisions or to pay rent?- Yes.

4148. To whom have you sold them?-I have sold them to several persons for oil to see to knit.

4149. Do you burn oil in your lamps?-Yes.

4150. To whom did you sell them for oil?-To several persons.

4151. To neighbours?-Yes.

4152. Tell me anything you gave away in that way?-I have given tea.

4153. How much?-Sometimes two ounces for bottle of oil.

4154. When did you do that last?-Last year.

4155. Did you do it often?-Three times.

4156. Did you ever give away your goods for anything else?- Sometimes we gave them away for wool to make into worsted.

4157. Who did you buy wool from?-From any one that I could get it from.

4158. Give me the names of some of the people from whom you got oil and worsted in exchange for your goods?-I gave some tea to Mitch.e.l.l Sandison for wool.

4159. Did you ever sell any of your soft goods in that way?-No.

4160. It was always tea?-Yes.

4161. Is it a common thing among the knitters in your quarter to give away tea for anything you want?-Yes; for anything we can get for it.

4162. Did you ever pay for meal with it?-No.

4163. Did you ever pay your rent with it?-No.

4164. Did you ever get money for tea?-No.

4165. It was just oil and wool that you got in exchange for it?- Yes.

Lerwick, January 8, 1872, JANE HALCROW, examined.

4166. You come from Sandwick parish?-Yes; from North Channerwick.

4167. Do you knit for Mr. Robert Linklater with his wool?-Yes.

4168. Are you paid in goods?-Yes,

4169. Did you ever ask for money?-Yes, once.

4170. Did you get it?-No.

4171. What did you want the money for?-I wanted it for several purposes. We might perhaps require to pay for our board if we were staying a night or two in town; and that was the purpose I wanted it for at that time.

4172. Did you want any of it for provisions to take home?-Yes.

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4173. Are you not content to get the goods you want in return for your hosiery?-We are not very well content sometimes.

4174. Why?-Because if we were getting the money, we might make more of it in some other shops.

4175. Did you ever get the money to make more of it?-We never got money from Mr. Linklater.

4176. But did you ever go to Lerwick with money in your pocket, and make more of it than when you came with hosiery?-Yes, often.

4177. What money was that? Had you earned it by working at other things than knitting?-Yes.

4178. How did you make more of it than you would have done by spending it in the hosiery shop?-I went to other shops where there were better articles.

4179. Where did you go?-Sometimes to Mr. George Tait's.

4180. Does he not buy hosiery?-No, he never buys hosiery.

4181. Where else did you go to?-To Mr. Thomas Nicholson.

4182. But he buys hosiery?-Sometimes; if it is very good.

4183. Tell me anything you bought at Mr. Tait's or Mr.

Nicholson's which was cheaper than you would have got it for at the shops where you sold your hosiery?-It was only trifling things we bought out of their shops, because we never had money to buy things of great value from them.

4184. What were some of these trifling things?-Perhaps we were requiring neckties, or ribbons, or flowers; we might get them from them, but we scarcely ever went there to buy anything like dresses.

I remember once buying a dress at Mr. George Tait's and I got a splendid bargain of it for money.

4185. Did you get it any cheaper than you would have got it from the shops where they buy hosiery?-Yes; he reduced the price because it was to be paid money.