Saga - 1976, Page 190

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SIGURÐUR RAGNARSSON
A government bill to this end was brought before the parliament of
1901, but failed to obtain a majority. The natural explanation of
this is probably to be found in the fact that the assault on Ice-
landic rivers, so much in evidence in the years 1897—99, had now
died down.
In the winter of 1906—1907 the “water affair” appears on
the agenda again v/ith a revival of activity in the purchase and
lease of Icelandic rivers. The leading figure in this activity was the
poet Einar Benediktsson, who tried to persuade Norwegian finan-
ciers to produce money for the buying of waterfalls and business
enterprises in Iceland. Thereupon Hannes Hafstein, the Minister,
introduced a measure to limit the rights of ownership and control
of Icelandic waterfalls, which was passed, after considerable amend-
ment, by the parliament of 1907, receiving the royal assent on 22nd
November of that year. Thus the “waterfall law” came into being.
It provided that only persons domiciled in Iceland, and companies
that had their legal headquarters and a majority of their board
of directors domiciled in the country, might aoquire possession of
Icelandic waterfalls without special permission. If other parties
were accorded these rights, then they should always be subject to
definite conditions, e.g. regarding the reversion of such rights and
developments to the Icelandic state after a specific period of time.
In the end a fair measure of harmony was reached in parlia-
ment on the passing of the “waterfall law”, and from comments in
parliament and the press it appears that the matter was generally
regarded as having been satisfactorily settled.
In the next ten years or so, i.e. 1907—1917/19, all the most im-
portant rivers in the country came into the possession of waterfall
companies which were Icelandic in name but foreign in fact. This
subject will be dealt with in a later article.
trs.AB.