495. Are these things which you get from the store marked down in pass-books of your own, or in the books of the store?-We can have a book for ourselves if we like. I did not bring mine with me. 496. Does the storekeeper mark the things in your pass-book as you get them?-Yes.
497. Are the quantities of fish also marked into that pass-book as they are delivered?-No; they are entered into another book which the factor keeps, and we keep the accounts in a book for ourselves.
498. You mark them down for yourselves in another book?-Yes.
499. Is that the general practice among the fishermen in your locality?-It is; and then we compare the quantities with the factor before we go up to settle.
500. Then each fisherman has two books-a passbook for his dealings with the store, and a book of his own in which he marks down the quantities of fish delivered?-Yes.
501. When you came to settle, do you generally get a large balance paid to you in cash?-Every year is not alike. If it has been a bad fishing season, and if the crops are light, then perhaps the accounts will not square. But there have been two or three good seasons lately.
502. When the accounts do not square, you mean that, you may be in debt to the fish-merchant?-Yes; £2 or so.
503. And he allows that to over, and to be paid next year?-Yes.
504. But you have no serious complaint to make about that system?-No; we cannot complain about the regulations in Shetland.
505. Could you make a better bargain with anybody else?-I don't think we could-in Shetland.