GO TO ICELAND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 November 1924, Page 13

GO TO ICELAND.

DAYLIGHT-SAVING PARADISE Iceland, rather more than 500 miles to the north of Scotland, has a mean temperature very little below that of the British Isles, because the Great Gulf Stream, well-nigh encircling the island, softens the climate. At 11.30 one night (writes Howard Little in tlie Daily Graphic) I saw a man, divested of coat and waistcoat, begin to paint the outside of his house —this though an Icelander had just been complaining that ‘‘the evenings were beginning to draw in.” The island is considerably larger than Ireland, but has a population of only 100,000, dependent almost entirely upon fishing, though Icelandic ponies, butter and mutton are not unknown in other 'countries. It is 30 years since I was in Reykjavik, the capital, and in those days there was no wheeled traffic (because there were no roads), even funerals being conducted on pony-back. Now there are roads and motor-cars. They have wireless telegraphy, electric light, and the telephone; but even such innovations cannot kill the individuality of Iceland. Reykjavik has two kinemas. and in one of the hotels an orchestra performs nightly, producing rag-time and other quite modern noises. : I remember having found fishing from an open- boat a wearisome pastime, because the fish were so greedy, and insisted on being caught at a rate which was tiring. Now it is not possible to get fish in that way; the trawlers take alj. What was formerly work for about 25 boats, each manned by four men, is now done by one trawler, emploj--ing 30 men. . Yet, O, ye advocates of mass-production, fish is no cheaper! Through all these changes the fine spirit of Iceland survives. The proprietor of the largest hotel is not above carrying the luggage of a favoured guest downstairs; and in Iceland the favoured guest is not necessarily he Is pays most. In the hotel you will find a. woman cerk who speaks seven languages, and might not inaptly be described as a general welfare superintendent. _ Iceland must be visited to be known, can harking at Hull, we may proceed to thence to the Faroe Islands and Westman Island, taking from four to six days en route —drawing ever nearer to the Land of the Midnight Sim, the .and of salmon-fishing and of well-nigh trackless lava plains; -the land of the >agas and the abiding place of a mental culture to be found nowhere else m the world.