THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1893. ICELAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2470, 28 February 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1893. ICELAND.

There came to us by cable, a few days ago, a startling and extraordinary piece of intelligence. It was stated that 2000 Icelanders had emigrated' to Manitoba, in- Canada, and thai the whole nation was thinking of following them. This is probably the first time in the world's history in which a whole people determined on leaving voluntarily their own country, and corasequently the information is sufficiently interesting to give it a little attention. Iceland, as our readers are aware, is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is situated very near the polar circle, 500 miles farther north than Scotland, and, as its name indicates, is partially covered with ice. There is there one field of ice covering 4000 square miles, and in some places mountains of ice which rise to a height of 6466 feet. The climate, however, is not so bad as one might think. The average temperature is between 29deg. and 39deg. Fahr., seldom falling below 20deg. or rising as high as GOdeg. On the north side the weather is dry and regular, on the south wet and variable, but the atmosphere is very pure and healthy on the whole. The land, of course, is very barren inland, but some of the sea coast is good grass country. No cereals are grown there except a kind of wild oats, but potatoes and other root crops do well there. Trees never reach to a greater height than 12 feet, and fruit trees are unknown. All the tillage is done in the most primitive manner. Nearly the whole of the population live on isolated farms, and each plant its own plot with the spade ; so agricultural implements are unknown. Tnere are very few towns. The seat of government has a population of about 2500, and there are two other towns of about 400 each. Tne total population of the country is about 70,000, and their means of living consists chiefly in fishing and in keeping herds of sheep and cattle. They keep about 21,000 cattle, 31,000 small horses, and nearly half a million sheep. There are no roads through the country, and all travelling is done on backs of ponies. The richest man in the island is not worth £3OO a year, but there is no abject poverty, and such aa become destitute are liberally treated, and carefully provided for. The whole people are very highly educated, and most of them can speak, read, and write more than one language, notwithstanding that they have not had any public school system to Bpeak of. They have a splendid literature, and are undoubtedly highly intelligent; but probably the fact that for nearly seven months of the year they have no out-of-door work to do accounts for their profloienoy in letters to a great extent. _ It would appear that loeland at one time belonged to Ireland, for when discovered more than 1000 years ago by the Scandanavians, it was then inhabited by a Colony of Irish missionaries who had to fly out of it as fast as they could. At any rate at the present time it is a dependency of Denmark, but it has its own Parliament,—it has Home Rule which was granted to it in 1874. Iceland is a larger country than Ireland, but a great portion of it is uninhabitable, yet at the same time it is not because that the population has grown too large that the people are emigrating. The most probable reason for the desiro of the Icelanders to leave their country is that they are tired of its non-progressivo character as well as its general sterility. Th-ey are people who"»re eseeljjenily informed aa regards wha*-is going on *» t'be outside world, +W *ea newspapers., two magazines, tne> Juut. . _ hth from and other paper, d of thom Copenhagen, and as a 0 ~ E can read almost any language —hich they know exactly the progress v. the world is making while they alone live under primitive conditions. No doubt this is galling to the adventurous spirit of the Norsemen, but they cauuot help it. Let them do their best they cannot do much in their own country, and so they have determined to leave it altogether and settle in more favored climes.