9917. Have you ever been asked to fish for any other person than Spence & Co. since they began business?-No.
Baltasound, Unst, January 19, 1872, MAGNUS HENDERSON, examined.
9918. You are a proprietor near Haroldswick?-Yes, a small proprietor.
9919. You have been resident in Unst all your life?-Yes.
9920. You were at one time engaged in the fishing yourself, and you know the system that is practised here?-Yes, so far.
9921. I presume the system of annual settlements has been one of long continuance here?-Yes.
9922. The fishermen have also for a long time combined the calling of farming with that of fishing?-Yes.
9923. They fish for about four months in the year, and are engaged on their farms for the rest of the time?-Yes.
9924. How has the rent been usually paid to the landlord during the last twenty or thirty years?-Very often the tenants have fished for the landlord; and of course at the end of the year, when their accounts were made up, the rent was taken into account along with other matters.
9925. When they did not fish for their landlord, has there been any arrangement between the landlord and the fish-merchant for the payment of the rent?-Yes. In some cases, I suppose, the fish-curers are bound to pay the rent to the landlord for the tenants who fish for them.