15,582. Why?-I don't know. We generally just get what we want in money or in goods, as we ask for it.
15,583. Do the agents give these half-pay tickets whenever they are asked for?-Yes.
15,584. Would they prefer you not to take them, but to take goods instead?-I don't know about that. I have not been told so.
15,585. Did you hear the evidence of Francis Gifford?-Yes.
15,586. Do you think what he said was generally correct?-I think so.
15,587. Was he correct in what he said about a man who was in debt to the agent getting a berth more readily than another?-Yes.
15,588. Have you known that in your own experience?-I got a ship when I was in debt in my second year.
15,589. Do you think you got it more easily because you were in debt?-I cannot say for that.
15,590. Have you heard men speaking about getting a ship more easily when they were in debt?-I have heard them talking about it, but still I don't know about it myself except on that one occasion.
15,591. Have you known any case like that which Francis Gifford mentioned, of inferior men being put on board a ship because they were in the agent's debt, in preference to better men?-I never knew of that, but still it may have happened. I wish to say that in 1866 I shipped in the 'Diana' of Hull, for the west ice in Davis Straits, and when we were out I was beset in her for thirteen months, and for seven months we were on short allowance. We have never been paid for that short allowance, although the men in Hull were paid for it.