Tíminn - 17.06.1930, Blaðsíða 21

TÍMINN
PBeitu Í.J
olfur og bensfn hafa reynst bezt hér á landi á undanförnum árum.
»Sunna«, hrein og lær Ijósaolía, gefur skæra birtu
»Jötunn«, besta olían á dráttarvélar og smábáta
»Mjölnir«, hreinsuð mótoroJía, einnig notuð til Ijósa og suðu
»Grettir«, persnesk hráolía á báta- og landvélar
Nýja BF bensín,
á bifreiðar og aðrar bensín
vélar er víðurkent aflmesta,
hreinasta og drýgsta bensínið sem völ er á
Smurningsolíur, Vacuum og Sinclair eru ávalt fyrirliggjandi
llálega öll Kaupfélög landsins skifta við oss
Olíuverzlun íslands h.f.
Jnlins Björnsson
raftækjaveirzlun — rafvirkjun
B e y k j avík
1920-1930
Stærsta raftækjaverzlun landsins
Aitaf miklar byrgðir af
nýjum vörum
beint frá verksmiðjum
víðsvegar um
Evrópu og Ameriku
Aðalumbod
fyrir hin þjóðkunnu
Therma
rafmagns- suðu- og hita-
tæki, sem notuð hafa
verið um 20 ára skeið
á Islandi
THERMA
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x*:*‘:*r*: X*:V:
••’iijjiv’v. v
Motorboats are introduced about the same time and there
has been a subsequent development of these modern types
of vessels. The old rowingboats have now all disappeared
and generally speaking the Icelandic fishing industry
may be said to be as elaborately modernized as any in
the world.
In farming the improvements have been more slow-
going. Practically speaking one may almost say that old
and primitive methods prevailed until after the Great
War, when the importation of modern farming machinery
begins on a larger scale. By that time the road system in
the country had been so extended as to make motoríng
throughout the principal inhabited parts practicable.
Much energy is now devoted to the improvement of ruial
housing, the principal building material being concrete,
while preparations are also being made for electrifica-
tion of large parts of the country. Miles upon miles of
fences are made every year and soil hitherto idle is re-
claimed, mainly by the use of tractors. The Government
gives assistance to the importation of artificial manures,
besides granting financial assistance for the establish-
ment of small holdings and in numerous other ways
encouraging agriculture. Up-to-date dairies are springing
up, abattoirs, ice-houses and cold storage establishments
for preparing and preserving the produce for the market.
The task of thoroughly modernizing Icelandic farming in
the briefest possible time has been resolutely undertaken
and is being energetically pursued.
(So=operaíxon in $cefan6
Next year the oldest co-operative society in Iceland,
Kaupfélag Þingeyinga, will be able to celebrate
its fiftieth anniversary, having been founded in 1881.
Although the co-operative movement is thus compara-
tively young in Iceland, it has made steady progress and
increased in popularity, especially in the rural districts.
When, on the initiative of a small handful of farmers
in poor circumstances in the most northerly district of the
island, the co-operative movement was inaugurated here
half a century ago, practically all Icelandic trade was
eonducted through Danish firms which had long been
established here, some for three quarters of a century,
and others for even a hundred years, each in its particular
village or trading station, where as a rule it was the
only business concern. These concenrs were wealthy but
the people were poor. The co-operative societies, therefore,
had to face a keen competition, especially at the begin-
ning. Their position was a difficult one. They had no
working capital and no credit in Iceland. Communication
with other countries was of the scantiest. A few sailing
vessels brought the imports in the Spring and went back
in the Autumn with the Icelandic products, as had been
the custom for a thousand years. The Kaupfélag Þingey-
inga succeeded in establishing connexions with British
houses, and ever since that time the Icelandic trade with
England has been on the increase. The society further
succeeded in chartering a steamship to take a cargo of
goods to the north coast of Iceland in winter, which up
to that time been looked upon as impracticable. Ever since
this experiment, communication by sea round the coasts
has been increasing and steadily improving during the
whole year. In spite of oppostition on the part of the
merchants this society of northern famiers continued to
thrive, and on the same modal co-operative societies came
into existence in various pax*ts of the country, the Danish
houses losing ground to the same extent, until after the
Great War they may be said to have entirely disappeared.
The first task of the societies was to ensure a better
quality of the chief exports, mutton and wool, and to
establish good connexions with wholesale houses and
manufacturers abroad. At first the societies worked
separately without any concei’ted action, but later on
they united and formed a federation, Samband íslenzkra
samvinnnufélaga (S. í. the Eederatíon of Icelandic Co-
operative Societies) which has nov become one of the
vei*y largest concerns in Iseland, having last year a turn-
over af 15.965.000 krónur. Altogether there are now in
the country about fifty co-operative societies, most of
them trading societies, with a total membership of
approximately ten thousand. lt will not be far off the
truth to say that half the population of Iceland obtains
its necessaries through these societies.
The most impoi*tant co-operative society in the
country is Kaupfélag Eyfirðinga (K. E.) at Ak-
ureyri. This carries on an extensive trade, and has
established an up-to-date dairy, slaughterhouse, freezing-
plant and margarine factory. In recent years many of the
co-operative societies have erected up-to-date freezing-
plants in connexion with tlieir slaughter-houses to
facilitate the export of mutton. There is every prospect,
however, that in the near future dairying will be one of
the chief interests of the co-operative societies in the
country, on account of the remarkable progress which ís
being made in agricultural methods. During the past
winter two new dairies on a co-operative basis were
started, both in connexion with tlie great irrigation
sdiemes in Árnessýsla.
Up to this time the co-operative movement has fiour-
ished most among the farmers in the country districts,
but it has also a great field before it in the near future
among the seamen and workmen in the towns.
To make the public familiar with the co-operative
movement the S. í. S. issues a periodical and maintains
a school in its premises in Ileykjavík. Two courses of
instruction are given in the school, which serves as a
preparatory institution for those who aim at entering
the service of the societies.
ðcdanbic Scfyools
anb Coirttnon €bucation
In all probability, one cannot point to any one fact
which better describes the Icelandic nation and its culture
past and present than this, that there does not nor ever
has existed dialects in Iceland, comparable to those that
have existed and do exist in the other countries of
Scandinavia, in Germany and even England. This must
appear even more remarkable when one considers the
position of the country, which has always been scantily
populated and communication between the various parts
diíficult and slight for generations. At the same tíme, it
is worth while to point out that peculiarity, that the old
Norse language has been so well retained for a thousand
years in Iceland, that every child can read with full under-
standing the old sagas and Edda poems, as they were
written 700 years ago.
Some students have maintained that the Icelanders
have been able to preserve their ancient tongue because of
their isolation from other countries. But this is however,
undoubtedly incorrect. The explanation of this imporant
phenomenon lies unquestionably in the fact that the Ice-
Janders have from the very beginning, above other Ger-
manic peoples, been a literary people.
The national literature, the sagas and poems, have
been for a thousand years the source of the intellectual
life of the nation, from century to century, from generar
tion to generation, from one land’s end to another. From
the beginning of the writing of the sagas, about 1100 A.
D. and up to the 19th. century, the ancient sagas and
poems, written on pai'chment and paper, were the most
precious national acquisition, which even the poorest
farmer held as his most valued possession.
It is safe to say, therefore, that the old norse litera-
ture, has for long been the foundation of Icelandic
culture. It is an other matter, of course, that during many
centuries, Icelandic scholars sought learning and cultui*e
amongst other nations, first in Germany, France and
England and later on at the Uni versity of Copenhagen,
because of certain privileges which they enjoyed since
the 16th century until Iceland became a sovereign state
in 1918.
The nation established its own University in 1911,
but since it contains only 4 faculties, (law, philologjr,
medicine and theology) very many students, close to two
fifths of the number, must look to other countries. Up to
1918 the majority of students attended the University at
Copenhagen, and since that time, more and more of them