ALEXANDER M'INNES, Crofter, Kilmuir—examined.
4003. The Chairman.
—Who is your proprietor ?
—M'Leod of M'Leod.
4004. Who is your factor?
—Alexander M'Donald, Portree.
4005. Mr Fraser-Mackintosh.
—We have been informed that when you entered your croft you paid something?
—Yes.
4006. Who was your predecessor?
—Peter M'Lean.
4007. Was he any friend of yours ?
—No.
4008. What did you pay to the landlord ?
—I did not pay anything to the landlord, so far as I know.
4009. To whom did you pay it?
—To Mr M'Lean.
4010. You gave him a certain sum?
—Yes, because he paid the same sum before me.
4011. For what did you pay that £8?
—It was after I took it that I understood the matter; but so far as I understand, from what I heard, the money did not go to the proprietor. I think the original beginning of it was about a house that was on the farm. It was the value of the old house.
4012. But you gave it to your predecessor1?
—Yes.
4013. Mr Cameron.
—And he gave it to his predecessor, you believe?
— Most likely.
4014. Sir Kenneth Mackenzie.
—Are you entitled to get that £8 when you leave again ?
—Well, it depends on circumstances. I cannot guarantee that, but (to show the scarcity of land) I was almost forced to do it. It was no necessity, but my own free will.
4015. Why did Peter M'Lean, your predecessor, leave?
—I understood he got a better place.
4016. He left it of his own free will?
—Yes, and I counted it as an obligement that I got it.
4017. Did you agree with the factor for the place before you agreed with Peter M'Lean ?
—So far as I understood the rules, he could not give it to me without the consent of the factor.
4018. But he got it?
—Yes.
4019. Did the factor know you paid him £8?
—I cannot say, because M'Lean had to do with the factor, and I had to do with M'Lean.
4020. Do you think the factor, up to this moment, ever knew about the £81
— I think he knows it.
4021. Did you ever mention it to him?
—No, because I never had the opportunity. We live a distance apart from one another.
4022. But you pay rent to him sometimes ?
—Not yet.
4023. Does the house still stand for which this £ 8 was originally given ?
—No, the house has fallen; I cannot tell how long since.
4024. And you don't know how many generations the £ 8 has gone on for?
—No.
4025. Mr Fraser-Mackintosh.
—Are there any such cases as your own in the same town ?
—I don't think it; so far as I know, I understand it was not as arrears, but for the price of the house, and M'Lean had to pay the same as I had.
4026. But it was for a house that you did not get the benefit of ?
—-That is the sum and substance of the whole.
4027. The Chairman.
—Had M'Lean any arrears of rent at the moment he left ?
—M'Lean had it only a year. I do not think he was in arrears.
4028. Mr Cameron.
—He is a substantial man ?
—Yes
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