'7570. Why is that done?-I cannot afford to buy articles here; they are too dear for me. My stipend would not afford to pay for them.' '7571. Do you know if the same reason operates in the case of your fellow clergymen?-I don't know; but they have often spoken about it. In the first place, I hold the goods to be, as might be expected, inferior in quality to the goods I would like. I don't blame the merchants for not having goods of better quality, because their customers perhaps would not be in the way of buying them; but I could not afford to buy from the merchants here, in consequence of the tremendous percentage which they charge upon their goods.' [C. Robertson, 15,017; J. Robertson, sen., 14,072.] Statements to the same effect are made by the Rev. D. Miller, United Presbyterian minister at Mossbank, and the Rev. W. Smith, minister of Unst. [6001; 10,714.] Many witnesses complained that prices are higher at the 'shops' than at Lerwick. Thus the leading witness from Dunrossness said that oatmeal at Mr. Bruce's shop at Grutness was 4s. a boll (140 lbs.), or 8s. per sack or quarter, above its price in Lerwick. [L. Mail, 568.] GRUTNESS The prices charged here are much too high; and this arises not merely from the want of the check of competition, as regards the men thirled to the shop by want of money to deal elsewhere, but also from the very peculiar way in which the prices are fixed. This may possibly be explained by the fact that neither Mr. Bruce nor his shopkeeper have been properly trained to the business of the shop, which has been taken up as an appendage of the fish trade. Gilbert Irvine, the shopkeeper, was unable to give any very clear explanation of the way in which the price of meal at Grutness is fixed, and why the men never knew the price of it until the settlement. [G. Irvine, 13,173.] But Mr. Bruce says: '13,306. In what way do you fix the average price of meal for the year?--We take what other people are charging in Lerwick and elsewhere; and after considering the quality of the meal, and our extra expense upon it, we charge what we think it can reasonably bring, without any regard to the cost price of it.' '13,307. Do you not take the cost price into consideration at all?- Of course it is an element, but not the principal element, in fixing the price.'