11,986. Is that owing to bad seasons, or owing to a bad system, or what?-It is sometimes owing to all these things together.
11,987. I suppose all the men you employ, and some others besides, keep accounts in your books for the supplies which they require for their families and for the fishing?-Yes.
11,988. Each man has a ledger account?-Yes.
11,989. And although you are out of the business, you are still intimately acquainted with the way in which it is conducted?- Yes.
11,990. Do you think that one half of the men at this settlement have a balance to get in money?-I think most of the ling fishermen had, but the cod fishermen were much more in debt.
11,991. You had not many ling fishermen?-No, only a few boats.
11,992. It is the Dunrossness men you speak of as the ling fishermen?-Yes.
11,993. The Scalloway men are not ling fishermen?-No. I think there was only one boat that went from Scalloway.
[Page 295]
11,994. Is the business still carried on in your name?-No; it is carried on in the name of Nicholson & Co.