6727. What does their contract generally amount to?-We furnish the wood, and merely pay them for [Page 163] their work. I think we generally pay £3 for the work on a six-oared boat.
6728. When you enter into a contract for the building of a boat, does the man open an account, or is it generally the case that he has an account already running?-The builder I employ generally has an account running.
6729. Are his family and himself supplied with goods from your shop from time to time?-Only occasionally. I think the boats are paid for mostly in cash. Probably he would get a few pounds from me if he was requiring them, and then he would come and build boats for me afterwards.
6730. Are the boat-builders a class of men by themselves, who work at nothing else?-Yes.
6731. Do they travel about the country?-Yes.
6732. Are they not employed by you all the year round?-No.
6733. Then, they generally get an advance of money from you before they begin work for you?-I don't say generally, but I say the particular builder I employ has done that sometimes.
6734. So that, when his boat is finished, he has generally nothing to get?-No; he has something to get still, because he is building more than one at a time.
6735. But during the time he is building them, he has an account at your shop for necessaries to his family?-Yes.
6736. What is the other book you have there?-It is a ledger for the purpose of entering anything into-goods supplied to a family.