The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1964, Page 20

18
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Autumn 1961
have always placed far ahead of mater-
ial wealth or gain.
The Canadian people are proud
that the Icelandic emigrants of the
1870’s chose Canada for their new
home. . . . This is the message which
I would like you to take home sir, a
message which I am sure you will be
proud to bear to your people.
In appreciation of your hospitality
. . . . I would like you to accept as a
memento of your visit here, a personal
gift from one Benidickson to another.
I would also like to present your wife,
Mrs. Benediktsson and your son with
a souvenir of this visit. I hope that
these small tokens will remind you
when you return to your home that
you have gained many Canadian
friends who will always be glad to wel-
come you again.
VACATION WORK BY STUDENTS ON ICELANDIC ISLES
Three arts students from Queen’s,
who are helping to overcome an acute
shortage of labour in the fish industry
in a group of small islands off Ice-
land, have been telling me (by letter)
about their jobs.
The Westmann Islands where they
are working, are evidently a vital part
of the Icelandic fishing industry; one
third of the country’s fish products
come from them.
Robert Thornberry tells me that hr
and his friends have had to do a wide
variety of jobs—like gutting, filleting,
packing and freezing fish, as well as
loading the end product on cargo ships.
Mechanisation often cannot be
taken very far in the fishing industry,
and there is always a demand for
labour for it in Iceland.
The height of the season, Thorn-
berry says, is between January and
March, when the islanders often work
18-19 hours a day for seven days a
week. During the winter family life on
the island is almost non-existent as the
men are out at sea and the women
working in the factories.
Only in early summer can families
really get together and during this
short period an all-out attack is made
on accumulated domestic tasks which
have to be done.
A great feature of Westmann Island
life, Thornberry tells me, is community
co-operation. This applies to house-
building more than anything else and
evidently the most popular way of
constructing one is for someone to do
it himself with a group of friends.
This relatively affluent society — in
which the wages may rise to £60 a week
at the height of the season—suffers
from the disadvantage that it has very
little on which to spend its money.
Despite rough roads and an import
duty of 100 pc, cars are popular and
large American models are a common
sight.
There is no television and thus -the
cinema is all-important. British, Am-
erican and German films appear
regularly and evidently the islanders
make what they can of them without
the help of Icelandic sub-titles.
Thornberry is impressed with the
Westmann Islands. Considering -the
lack of resources within the islands
themselves, he says, a remarkably ef-
ficient way of life has been evolved.
—from the Belfast Weekly Telegraph,
July 10, 1964.