NORWAY AND SWEDEN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11557, 19 April 1898, Page 3

NORWAY AND SWEDEN.

Norway is more properly Norea, meaning “ N orth, Isle. ” It is commonly called by the natives the “ North Kingdom.” Some of the farms in Sweden are equipped with telephones, and a stranger not understanding the language can ring up an interpreter. Every guest at a Norwegian wedding brings the bride a present. In many parts a keg of butter is the usual gift, and .if the marriage takes place in winter, salted or frozen meat is offered. The Swedes and Norwegians carry their loose cash in immense pocket-books; some of these have been in use for two or three generations, and contain almost enough leather to make a pair of hoots. Sweden is the most Protestant country in the world. Of the population of 6,000,000, there are only two or three thousand Roman Catholics —the remainder of the people belonging almost entirely to the Lutheran Church. . ‘ Norway is a small country, and the sayings and doings of its people do not, often appear in print; but the Norwegians have cause to congratulate themselves on the fact tha* their average length of life is greater .than in any other European country. Dr Fridtjof Nansen is a typical Norseman, with the light hair and blue eyes of the race. He made his first expedition into the,far North the year he came, of age. He is a most competent authority in many large departments of zoology, and his published papers on various anatomical subjects are of considerable interest and importance. One of the copper mines in Sweden has been yielding large supplies of that metal for the last eight hundred years. As far back as 1228 its lucky owners realised big. profits. The actual output has been recorded from the year 1663, when it amounted to 1300 tons, down to the present time. Tho maximum was reached in 1650, when the mine yielded 3455 tons. The little town of Nasso, in Sweden, has a female contingent, one hundred and fifty strong, in its fire brigade. The water supply of the village consists simply of four great tubs, and it is the duty of the women “ firemen ” to keep these full in case of lire.: They stand in two continuous hues from the tubs to a lake some distance away, on* line passing the full buckets and the other sending them back. Some time ago the Queen of Sweden was suffering from extreme nervousness, and there was a good, deal of sound sense shown in the prescription for her cure. Amongst other things, she was to make her own bed, sweep her own room, and occupy her mind with other little household duties, and to walk at least six miles a day. It is pleasing to note that her Majesty tried this novel remedy, and with very bcnrtkaal results.

The best cod-liver oil is made in Norway. For three months, beginning in Jahuary; tn« fish come in from the Arctic Ocean to th® Norway fiords, or bays, to spawn, and.sometimes as many as sixty or sixty-five million fish are caught in a single season. These fish of Norway are fat and lively, in prime condition, and surpass by far the codfish of other waters. The main fisheries are off the Lofoten Islands, a chain of barren rocks about sixty miles from the mainland.

Leprosy, that terrible scourge to humanity, is often met with in Norway. The disease is attributed to poor living, and to fish forming too great an article of diet. The authorities are doing their utmost to stamp out the awful malady by confining the sufferers in a hospital or isolating them in their houses from other people. The Countess of Meath t-eils of a visit to a leper hospital in Molde, Amongst the patients was a young boy who was so slightly attacked by the devastating disease that scarcely any sign of its presence was risible except a small spot on the arm and a mark under the eyelid, but this was enough to stamp the poor lad as a victim, and an outcastfrom the rest of his countrymen.