7352. Do you think that, as a rule, he will continue to fish for his former employer?-Yes.
7353. But the fact probably is, that if he is in debt to you in that way, he is also in debt to [Page 177] his own employer?-I believe that is generally the case.
7354. Have you known any case of a fisherman changing his employer because he was so deeply in debt to him, that that employer would not advance him any more goods?-I have in my own transactions had to refuse advances to a fisherman, because I knew he was getting into debt deeper than he could pay. I refused to advance him any longer, and left him at liberty to do the best he could for himself.
7355. Did he leave you at the end of the season?-Yes.
7356. And at the beginning of it new season, did he go to another employer?-Yes.
7357. In that case how have you secured your debt?-I gave him perhaps a year, and then I had to press him for the amount.
7358. Did you take him to court?-Yes; I took him to court, because he refused to pay what I believed he was able to pay.
7359. Have you ever in such a case succeeded in getting any part of your debt settled by his new employer?-Yes.
7360. How was that done? Did you, at the beginning of the fishing season, get the new employer to make an advance to the fisherman to account of your debt?-In the case I am referring to, the employer at the end of the fishing season made a payment to me, as an instalment on the debt.
7361. Was that done by arrangement with the fisherman?-Yes; the fisherman went to his new employer and got his line or security for a part, indeed for the whole amount, to be paid in three instalments, in three years, because I thought it better to part with the man when he was getting too deeply into debt, and perhaps the change in going to another employer would lead him to better himself.