15,352. Do you swear that you have not had more than half a dozen such applications in the course of your business?-I don't recollect more than one or two. Of course, I did not ask them pointedly where they had got the articles, or how they had got them, except merely that I wished to know that the articles had not been got in a dishonest way.
15,353. But I see that a great number of the entries in the book relate to transactions with females?-Yes.
15,354. Can you swear that the majority of these women were not knitters who were in the habit of dealing with hosiery shops, and who came to you and got cash for the goods which they had got there?-That might have been so, but I really cannot say.
15,355. Can you swear that one out of every two of these women did not come and sell goods to you which she had got in that way?-She might have got them in that way, but I cannot tell.
15,356. Were most of the purchases which you made, of new articles or of old?-The greater part of the things had been worn.
15,357. Do you think there was any other way in which the women got these articles, except by getting them from the hosiery shops?-Certainly.
15,358. Were there some of them which had been got at the agents' shops where the women were supplied, while the men were away at the fishing?-They might have had accounts at these shops, and got goods there in part payment for the men's wages.
Lerwick, January 30, 1872, Mrs. BARBARA DALZELL, examined.
15,359. Do you live in Scalloway Road, Lerwick?-Yes.
15,360. Have you been in the habit of knitting and selling your goods, or have you knitted with your own wool?-I have both knitted with merchants' wool and with wool of my own.