Part 31 (2/2)

328. Have you tried any of the other shops in the town to see if they would give you money for your hosiery?-No, none for a good while back; but it is not very much that I can do at it, on account of the house-work. My husband is a shoemaker.

329. Have you ever got lines for your shawls?-No: I generally settle up for the whole in goods at the time when I sell the shawls.

330. Is that all you want to say?-Yes.

[Page 7]

Lerwick, January 1, 1872, Mrs. JEMIMA BROWN or TAIT, examined.

331. Are you a knitter in Lerwick?-Yes.

332. Do you live with your parents?-Yes.

333. What is your father?-A shoemaker.

334. And you knit for your own benefit?-Yes.

335. For whom do you knit-For Mr. Robert Linklater.

336. What kind of goods do you knit?-Generally veils.

337. How much do you make in a week?-Sometimes 3s., and sometimes not so much, just according as the merchant buys the articles we make.

338. Is it his worsted you work?-Yes.

339. And he pays you so much for the work you put upon it?- Yes.

340. What is the value of the work you put upon the veil?-The last veils I made I got 9d. apiece for them.

341. Does what you get for them depend upon the size of the veils?-A good deal. These were the largest veils of all.

342. Then you will sometimes make four or five of them in a week?-I just made three of these. They were large ones.

343. How often do you get settled with for your work?-We have a pa.s.s-book, and the merchant lets it go on until he thinks we have got goods up to the value we have knitted for. He then makes up the book. [Produces pa.s.s-book in name of Harriet Brown, and another in name of Amelia Brown.] These are my sisters. One book served for the whole of us.

344. Did any one tell you to come here and bring those books?- No; I just heard what was to be done, and I came of my own accord.

345. These books contain the goods which you have purchased from Mr. Linklater?-Yes.

346. The last one begins on April 16; 1870, and is added up in January 1871. The amount at your credit is 5, 5s. 2d.: what does that mean?-It means, that we have knitted articles to that amount, and we have also got goods of that value. That was a square balance. The articles we have knitted bringing out that sum, are entered in a separate account at the end of the same book.

347. Is that account the same as appears in Mr. Linklater's books?-Yes.

348. It is-April 16, By balance at account, 10s. 111/2d.; May 5, twenty veils at 1s., 1: are these entered at the time you hand them back?-Yes; I took twenty veils to Mr. Linklater at that time.

349. The next entry is-September 6, twenty veils at 1s., 1. I thought you said you got 9d. for the largest veils you made?-Yes, for the largest size; but the veils I took in then were finer work, and the price for them was 1s. each.

350. Then-December 29, twenty veils at 1s, 1; March 30, two shawls at 3s. 6d, 7s.; August 19, nine veils at 1s., 9s.; same date, one shawl, 3s. 6d.-in all, 5, 10s. 51/2d. There is deducted 5, 5s.

2d., leaving a balance in your favour of. 5s. 31/2d.; and then the account begins again, and is continued down till December 26?- Yes.

<script>