1000th. ANNIVERSARY OF ICELAND’S PARLIAMENT APPROACHING

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6815, 21 January 1929, Page 11

1000th. ANNIVERSARY OF ICELAND’S PARLIAMENT APPROACHING

Several hundred Canadian and United States citizens of Icelandic descent are expected to begin laying plans soon to sail for Iceland in 1930 to participate in a celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the founding of tho Icelandic Parliament, according to Dr. B. J. Brandson, of Winnipeg, Man., chairman of the Celebration’ Committee in America, w r ho was in Boston recently. This millennial celebration will commemorate the of what is said to be the oldest Parliamentary Government in the world which has had a continuous, existence down to the present time, antedating the English “Mother of Parliaments” at Westminster by more than 300 years. Dr. Brandson pointed out. The celebration will take the form of festivities emphasising the national culture, tastes and characteristics of the Icelandic people, with addresses by native and foreign dignitaries, musical programmes and athletic contests. These events will be held at the actual meeting-place of the original Parliament or Althing which first came together in the year 930. This site is a spot about 40 miles from Reykjavik, the present capital, and is now a barren and deserted section of lakes, cliffs and deep canyons.

Once Had Woodland Areas. Tho denuded nature of much of the Icelandic country has given rise to rejCommendations from several Icelanders in America that the . delegation from Canada and the United States should take a cargo of young trees as its gift to tho mother country on tho millennial. Tradition has it that Iceland once had large areas of woodlands, but with their disappearance the land has become in many places almost bleak, according to Dr. Brandson. For tho visitors to hold tree-planting ceremonies would be to assist an active reforestation movement which the Icelandic Government has begun in the hope of broadening its industries, which at present are confinod largely to fisheries and grazing, ho said. Young treos from the Hudson Bay region of Canada would bo adaptable to the island climate, it is believed. “It was in 874 that tho first settlements were made in Iceland by people from Norway who loft that country some time earlier to avoid the rule of King Harold, and who lived for a time in. the Orkney and Shetland Islands and the north of Scotland and Ireland before finding their way to Iceland,” Dr. Brandson said. “Though they brought with them the common law's of Norway, they found themselves ip peed of an executive head,.and so called the Althing together in 930.

Cabinet on British Lines. f*Tho Althing was at first more of an administrative body than legislative, and its chairman was tho hoed of the Government of the island.. The present Althing has thirty-six-bers, and operates through a responsive Cabinet on the British dines. In the times of the earliost sessions, the members of the Parliament slept in tpnts about the meeting-place, and in keeping with this tradition the -visitors at the festival will be sheltered in a large encampment. •“The-long rule of the Parliamentary government illustrates the strong tradition of respect and obedience to law in tho Icelandic people,” he continued, end the absence of any monarchical head in those formative times instilled a strong feeling of democracy and independence, though the country again oame under the. rule of the King of Norway in 12G2. The pioneer trend in legislation was exemplified in Iceland’s being the first to extend suffrago to women.” It is estimated that approximately 25,000 Iclanders live in Canda and the United States, the greater part of them in Canada. This number is equivalent almost to one-fourth tho population of Iceland. Thus Dr. Brandson expects a considerable contribution , from this continent to tho prpgramme of tho festival. Reports from Iceland indicate that especial interest already is being taken in composition of special musical numbers, all with a classical trend, for the festival, With . many composers seeking the honour of adoption of their work. The celebration will bo held during the third week in June in 1930, and probably will occupy threo days.