'"The heads of families and other fishermen will therefore please indicate their views by subscribing below, adding yes if the former system be preferred; or no, if otherwise.-1867.">[ '12,381. Were there any negatives to the paper?-No. It created great alarm amongst the people, because they were afraid they would be left to their own resources.' '12,382. In consequence of that you continued to supply the islanders?-Yes, we went on as before ….' '12,386. Since you sent in that paper, has any attempt been made by the inhabitants of Foula to cure their fish themselves?-No; we found it needless to have sent in that paper, because they had given it up themselves, as it had not been paying them.' '12,387. But that paper had the effect of making it quite clear to the inhabitants of Foula that they must either give their fish to you green, or you would remove your shop?-We would either have their whole trade or none of it. It is a great risk to send vessels and boats there, and part of their trade would not pay, I may say that we supply goods there at the same price as we do at our shop at Reawick.'
NORTHERN WHALE AND SEAL FISHING.
The owners of Vessels engaged in this trade, and belonging to Hull, Dundee, and Peterhead, find it convenient to engage large numbers of their crew at Lerwick, where they call in their voyages northwards in February or March and in May. For this purpose agents at Lerwick are employed, who receive a commission of 21/2 per cent. on the wages of the men. None of these agents are, I believe, licensed by the Board of Trade, under sec. 146 of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854; but no prosecution for penalties for supplying seamen, under sec. 147 of the Statute, has been directed against any of them, or against the masters of the ships for which they act. The men are paid by monthly wages at a low rate, and by sums of 'striking-money,' 'fish money,' 'oil money,' and 'bone money,' which vary according to the success of the voyage. The whole earnings are payable when the men are discharged, except a second payment of oil-money-a small balance left over until the oil has been boiled, and its exact due amount ascertained.
It was stated by witnesses examined before Mr. Sellar in 1871,* and by Mr. Hamilton in a Report to the Board of Trade partly printed in the former Report,** that the chief profit of these agents, who are also shopkeepers, 'arises from what they can make out of the earnings of the men;' that the agents are interested in finding employment for the men who are in their debt, the inference being that they procure engagements for them in preference to others; that, for security of the agent's advances, allotment notes are made out in his favour; that even men who have means to pay for their outfit are obliged to deal at the agents' shops, that they may have their assistance in getting an engagement; and that settlements of wages, which ought by law to be made at the Custom-house within three days of the ship's return, are often delayed for months, in order that the accounts at the agents' shops may be increased.
*First Report, Min. of Ev., qu. 44,217 ** Report, p. xcix.
AGENTS' EVIDENCE IN CONTRADICTION OF FORMER REPORT
Most of the agents engaged in this business came forward to contradict the statements of the former witnesses, and of Mr. Hamilton's official Report; and they evinced much indignation, especially with regard to the latter. Upon their own evidence, however, the state of matters in times not very long past is not inaccurately described by Mr. Hamilton. It is true, indeed, that his Report, as printed, does not notice that the Board of Trade, acting through Mr. Gatherer, Collector of Customs and Superintendent of the Mercantile Marine Office at Lerwick, had, shortly before he wrote, taken measures to secure that the men should be paid their wages according to law, in cash, in presence of the Superintendent; but the efforts of the authorities do not appear to have been quite successful at the time when the Report was written. Although even now some improvements are required, the men's dealings with the agents have evidently decreased during the last few years.
[L.F.U. Garriock, 12,543.]
The understanding that men shall get their supplies where they get their employment is so universal in Shetland, that it is not surprising that it should have extended to the men employed in the whaling ships; and although Mr. Hamilton's description may be coloured by his personal acquaintance with a few extreme cases, a knowledge of the system prevailing in the local fisheries certainly raises the strongest presumption in favour of its substantial accuracy.
[A. Sandison, 7088; A. Moffat, 16,352; A. Goodlad, 16,399; P.
Halcrow, 15,549; W. Robertson, 16,581.]