BRIEF HISTORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 44, 26 April 1940, Page 9

BRIEF HISTORY

HE seeds of a national state were not sown in Norway until the ninth century, when order and organisation began to come out of a system of government consisting of small local " things," or parliaments, where all had a voice. These extended to governments over larger districts. Strife developed among leaders, and, in the year 872 Harald Haartagre, partly by force, partly by prestige, unified the country into a nation with himself as King. Two years later Norsemen discovered Iceland and added it to Norway’s possessions. In 983 Eirik Raude landed on Greenland, and about 1000 A.D. Leif Eriksson, his son, discovered the North American continent. By the middle of the thirteenth century, Haakon, a younger son of Harald, had driven the elder son, Erik. Bloodaxe, out of the country. Erik’s men colonised the Faroe, Shetland, and Orkney Islands, the Hebrides, Man, and Ireland, and retained still enough energv to annoy Haakon by harassing the men to whom he had given their lands. So Haakon pursued them and took over their colonies. When the royal line died out, in 1319, the kfngdom passed through a daughter to Sweden and again by marriage to Denmark. Queen Margaret of Denmark united all three kingdoms in 1397. Now the great vigour of young ‘Norway seemed to be spent, and the. colonies were lost to them. It was. not until five centuries had almost passed that the national. spirit awakened. In 1814, the union with Denmark was severed and Norway was given a constitution of her own by Prince Christian of Denmark. However, it did not last long, for five months later Sweden marched into Norway, Christian abdicated, and Charles XIII. of Sweden ruled with the constitution Christian had given the country. But the spirit of independence grew, and, in 1905, a peaceful revolution persuaded Sweden to allow the Norsemen to resume self-govern-ment. In 1920 Norway annexed the island of Jan Meyen, and, in 1924, she ratified a treaty placing Spitzbergen with Bear Island under Norwegian sovereignty. Norway’s constitution provides for the King to held supreme executive -powers, working with.a Council of State which assumes responsibility for his acts. The "storting,’ or parliament, represents 100 country districts and 50 towns. At its first meeting after election it divides itself into an upper house of one quarter of its members, who must ratify the decisions of the lower house. The King has a power of veto over legislation, but any bill passed by three -successive parliamerits must g0 through.