11,507. Where do you get your supplies of worsted?-Principally from Edinburgh or Leith.
11,508. Do you buy any Shetland worsted?-No; I cannot get it to buy.
11,509. Have you tried to get it and found it difficult?-Not often. It was only last spring that I began the hosiery trade at all.
11,510. Do you import all your worsted direct from Edinburgh, or do you get any of it through the Lerwick houses?-I get it all from a wholesale house in Edinburgh.
11,511. What is the quality of the worsted you get from there?-It is generally the finest quality, but not mohair. I don't deal in mohair at all. We generally use two qualities for veils, and these qualities are distinguished by numbers, but I don't remember the numbers just now. I buy it by the pound, and I think it costs me from 5s. to 8s. per pound.
11,512. Do you sell the worsted to knitters?-Yes, when I have an extra supply of it.
11,513. Are you paid for it in hosiery articles or in cash?-In either way; I give it for either when I do sell it. When they have a quantity of hosiery to sell, I prefer them to take an assortment of goods, because provisions are a thing that most people have very little profit upon. If they take the whole price in meal or in anything of that kind, I would not have much profit upon it.
11,514. You would rather have them to take some of the price in soft goods?-Not in soft goods, but in an assortment of groceries.
11,515. When a woman brings her hosiery to you first fix the price, and then, I suppose, you ask her what she wants?-Yes.
11,516. When you come down to a balance of 1d. or 2d, how do you settle that?-If they want nothing else, I often give them the balance in cash. It is the understanding that they are to take the price for their hosiery in goods, but still I don't hesitate to give them 1d. or 2d., or any small thing in money.