The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1977, Side 26

24
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
AUTUMN 1977
Colleen Fjelsted
for 1977-78. Colleen, sponsored by the
Minerva Ladies Aid, was chosen from
among 18 other contestants and chose
public speaking as her talent.
—Lake Centre News, July 5, 1977
STAFHOLT NEWS
Stafholt was pleasured by a visit of
Icelandic travelers on Tuesday, June 21.
The group of 40, led by Mr. Gudmundur
Magnusson, arrived shortly before noon,
being enroute from Vancouver, B.C. to
Seattle. They were greeted by Einar
Simonarson, president of Board of
Directors. The beautiful buffet lunch
was prepared by the staff and Stafholt
Auxiliary. The visitors visited with the
residents and local people who came for
the occasion.
Several of the Icelanders spoke Eng-
lish, but even though many did not, all
were most friendly. After refreshments
the group entertained with several Ice-
landic songs. Then all shook hands, bade
goodbye, and the group was off to
Seattle. All in all it was an eventful day
at Stafholt. Several other groups of Ice-
landic visitors are expected throughout
the summer.
WORST IS OVER?
ICELAND CONFIDENT PRICES WILL LEVEL OFF
Iceland’s high standard of living is
being maintained despite whopping in-
flation that soared to 50 per cent in
1973, the country’s former prime mini-
ster said Tuesday.
The rate was brought down to 30
per cent within two years, Olafur
Johannesson said during a visit to Win-
nipeg.
“Our main problem now is constant
inflation, but we are rather optimistic
we can stabilize it.”
Canadians “must not swoon at these
figures,” although they were a European
record.
“The bright side is that we are one of
the very few countries with full em-
ployment. Very few European countries
can say that.
“We have rather high standards of
living in Iceland and we have very equal
conditions of life. We want to preserve
that.”
Wage freezes are not imposed, due
to need and to labor’s strong position.
“The wages of the labor people had to
go up.”
Price controls have proven difficult
because of Iceland’s heavy import and
export trade.
Prices of fish, Iceland’s major ex-
port, have recently gone up he said.