13,612. How is the amount of cash ascertained?-We have a ledger account with each individual, which is settled every week, but perhaps it may not be balanced. We do not generally balance until the end of the year, but we square accounts before.
13,613. Is the account squared to ascertain the amount of cash payable?-Yes, the amount of cash due to the individual.
13,614. Is that not a sufficient balance for the whole?-I daresay it comes to the same thing as a sufficient balance, only the account is not ruled off.
13,615. Is it done in pencil?-It is done in ink, but it is not ruled off in lines; it is not added up.
13,616. But there is an addition made in the inner column in ink: how is that done?-It is just like any ordinary account, with double money columns. The wages are credited; then the goods stand against them, and the balance is charged, so that the one squares the other.
13,617. Is that done each week?-Yes.
13,618. Are the balances entered here always paid in cash?- Always.
13,619. Are they never allowed to lie?-Not with the work-people.
13,620. Is the week ending 2d Sept. 1871, of which this- [showing]-is the account, a fair average of a [Page 339] week throughout the season?-I think it will be about a fair average.
13,621. It shows £5, 17s. 5d. as the total amount of wages earned; and of that, £3, 19s. 7d. was paid in cash at the end of the week, the rest having been taken out in the course of the week in goods?-Yes, principally in provisions.