Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 55

1435. It is just part of your time that you can give?-Yes.

1436. Have you come down just now for the purpose of selling the articles you have knitted?-Yes.

1437. How many shawls did you bring with you this year?-Two.

1438. That is less than usual?-Yes.

1439. How do you get paid for your shawls?-I get goods out of the shop.

1440. Does the merchant fix the price 'for the shawl' when you take it in?-Yes.

1441. How much did you get for the two you brought down this time?-16s. for one, and 17s. for the other; and I had one belonging to another person that I got 19s. for.

1442. Who was the merchant that you sold them to?-Mr.

Sinclair.

1443. What did you get for them?-Goods.

1444. Did you ask for money?-I did not ask for money, because it has been understood for many years back that they would not give any, and goods are marked on the paper that we get. When I come down I employ a person to dress the shawls, and then that person sells them for me in the shop, and I get back a note from her, stating the amount in goods that I am to get for them. I understand not to ask for money, because the thing is always in that form.

1445. When you get the note, do you hand it back at the shop and get the goods in return?-Yes.

1446. Have you got any of these notes?-No; I have got the goods for them, and I was preparing to return to Fetlar when I was summoned here.

1447. Is the note printed or written?-It is all written.

1448. Who is the dresser that you employ?-A Miss Robertson. I don't know where she lives. The woman I live with when in Lerwick-Mrs. Park, Charlotte Place-went with her when she sold the shawls.

1449. Do you never go to the shop and sell your own shawls?- Sometimes I do; but not this time.

1450. Did you ever go to the shop to sell your shawls, and ask to be paid in money?-No; because I understood I would get no money.

1451. Did you ever get any part of the balance in money?-None.

1452. What do you get in goods?-Any kind of soft goods which I want, and which are in the shop. If the goods I want are not in the shop, then they would say that they did not have them; and I would have to take something else.

1453. Is it just soft goods that are in the shop?-Yes.

1454. Not provisions?-No; not provisions.

1455. Is there any tea?-No.

1456. You go to the shop yourself for your goods, and hand your line in payment for them?-Yes.

1457. Could you the same goods in Fetlar?-I could get the goods in Fetlar if I had money to give for them; but I could not get money for shawls or veils in Fetlar.

1458. But if you had the money, could you get the goods as good and cheap in Fetlar as in Lerwick?-Yes; they are very cheap in Fetlar. Messrs. Hay Co. have a shop there.

1459. And you think you could get your goods as good and cheap there as you can in Lerwick?-Yes.

1460. And of course you would not have to carry them back with you?-No.

1461. Are there many people in Fetlar who knit the same way as you do, and come in to Lerwick to sell their shawls?-Yes; there are a good many people who knit in the same way that I do, and come down here with their shawls, because there is no other way of disposing of them.

1462. Do they get their payment in the same way?-So far as I know, they do.

1463. Do they always get goods for their lines when they come down?-Yes.

1464. Will they not get a line to come down at another time for the goods?-No; I don't think they would get them in that way.

1465. Suppose you did not want the whole amount of your line in goods at one time, could you not take the line home with you, and when you happened to be again in Lerwick might you not get the balance in any kind of goods you wanted that were in the shop?- Yes; and I could get the goods at any time if I were to send down the line.

1466. Is that sometimes done?-I have never done it; but I suppose the merchants would do it.

1467. Did you ever know of a line being sold to another for money, or for another kind of goods?-No; I never did that myself, and I don't know of it being done.

1468. Is it all drapery that you are taking back?-Yes.

1469. Then you will have about 2 or 3 worth of it this time?- Yes.

1470. Do you want all that for your own use?-The girl for whom I sold one of the shawls will get her share of it.

1471. But when you brought down five shawls you might have twice as much to take back as you have this time?-It is not very much that they give for the shawls sometimes; and once, when I came down from Fetlar and had to pay the freight, I had to take what they would give me; and I could not get what I asked.

1472. Is it all stuff for, your own use that you are taking back, in exchange for your own, shawls which you sold?-Yes.

1473. Do you want the goods?-Yes.

1474. Are you to use them for yourself?-Yes.

Lerwick, January 3, 1872, MARGARET TULLOCH, examined.

1475. You live in Lerwick

1476. Are you in the habit of knitting for merchants here?-Yes.

1477. Do you buy your own wool?-For about eighteen months I have bought it.

1478. Before that, how did you do?-I knitted for Mr. Robert Linklater.

1479. You got the wool from him and knitted it, and took back the articles to him?-Yes.

1480. When you got the wool from him, in what way were you paid?-In goods.

1481. Had you a pa.s.s-book?-Yes.

1482. Have you got it with you?-Yes. [Produces it]