12,167. Is your business much of the same description as his?- It is exactly the same. There is no difference between them whatever.
12,168. It is conducted with the same class of customers?- Exactly.
12,169. Are your settlements made at the same season?-Yes.
12,170. Have you ever been in the fish-curing business yourself?- Yes. For the last two years I have done little in the winter season. I get no fish in summer.
12,171. Do you buy the fish green?-Yes; in winter.
12,172. Are you ready to buy them cured if you could get them?- Yes. I have often offered for fish, but I never could get them. I have made the offer publicly to all the boats.
12,173. In what way did you intimate that offer publicly?-I just said to the men that I would buy their fish, and give as high a price for them as another. I have said that if I did not give them 10s. more, I would not give them 10s. less; but I could not get them.
12,174. What did they say?-They said nothing, but they never gave me the fish.
12,175. Did you mean by the offer you made to them that you would give them a price fixed at the beginning of the season?- No; I could not fix a price then. I meant that I would give them as much as any other fish-buyer who was in the trade.
12,176. Did you mean that you would give them that price at the end of the season when they delivered their cured fish?-yes.