7164. But that has been after a favourable year?-Yes; it has been a very favourable year, and that is a smaller number than usual.
7165. Do you find that men who are in your debt are generally inclined to fish for you in the following year?-I have never had any difficulty in that way.
7166. Do they generally come to you as a matter of course and engage for the following season?-As a rule, I have endeavoured to keep the men out of debt as much as possible and I have always found it to be the best principle.
7167. But do the men who are in your debt generally come to you to fish for the following year, in order to wipe off their debt?-I don't think that in my ten years experience a single man has left the employment in consequence of being in debt.
7168. Have you in some years had a much larger number than six men in your debt at settlement?-Yes. I could not give the exact numbers; but there have been much larger numbers than that.
7169. Perhaps three or four times as many?-I should think so.
7170. The greater number of the men at the station?-No; but perhaps one-half of them may have been in debt in an unfavourable year.
7171. Was that long ago?-We had a turn of unfavourable years I think four or five years ago.
7172. Did their indebtedness sometimes run over a series of years?-In two or three cases it has done so.
7173. But not in many cases?-No. I can only think of three cases just now.