956. Do you think the goods you get at Messrs. Hay's shop are expensive as compared with the prices you would pay for them elsewhere?-I never thought that, and I never thought them worse than we could get elsewhere.
957. But as to the price, do you think they charge more for their goods than other people?-No; I have nothing to say against that.
958. Or as to the quality?-Both as to the quality and the price I was always satisfied as I would have been with any other body's.
959. You don't suppose they charge a higher price in consequence of the long credit they give?-No.
960. You get your goods from January onwards, and they are not settled for until the following January?-That is so.
961. But then there is credit on both sides; so that I suppose there need be no higher price on that account?-That is the case, so far as I am aware.
962. Is there anything else you wish to say?-You have not asked what may be the difference on a hundredweight of fish, if we had the advantage of selling them for ourselves, as against what we get for them under the present system. I believe the difference would be between 2s. and 3s. per cwt.
963. Do you think your profit would be 2s. or 3s. more per cwt. if the fish was sold by you?-Yes; if we were free agents to act for ourselves.
964. But in the case of a man who was curing on a large scale, has he not an advantage in the way of curing cheaper than a single fisherman would have?-We cannot think he would. We know what we could, cure them for ourselves: that is a matter within our own knowledge. The merchants tell us they cure, at a dearer rate, but we cannot enter into their accounts. If it costs them so much to cure the fish, then they must cure them much dearer than we know they could be cured for by ourselves.
965. Is it from your experience in Havera, as compared with your experience in Burra, that you believe you would be 2s. or 3s. per cwt. better off by curing the fish for yourselves?-That is from my experience in Havera, and also from my experience in Burra.