12,832. You have charge of his business now?-Yes, mostly.
12,833. Are you in partnership with him?-No.
12,834. You are his manager?-Yes.
12,835. Of what does your stock consist?-It is most impossible to say. It consists of drapery goods, groceries, ironmongery, coal, and I don't know what more.
12,836. Do you buy some hosiery?-A little; and we buy eggs as well.
12,837. I believe you have about the largest business in the neighbourhood?-We do a reasonable business.
12,838. You are not engaged in the fishing in any way?-We buy fish, but we have no boats of our own.
12,839. From whom do you buy fish?-From any parties who present them to us. We buy scarcely any in summer. It is mostly in winter that we get them, because in the summer months the boats are all engaged to certain fish-merchants, and the men sell their fish to them or to the proprietors.
12,840. Is it generally the proprietors who have the fishing in their own hands?-Some of them have, and some have not. Mr. Bruce of Simbister does not have the fishing in his hands; the others have.
12,841. To whom do Mr. Bruce of Simbister's tenants generally fish?-His tenants on the west side, those round us, fish for Mr. John Robertson, jun., Lerwick, and for Mr. Robert Mullay, Lerwick.