EASTER ISLAND ENIGMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 78, 2 April 1923, Page 3

EASTER ISLAND ENIGMA.

FASCINATES SCIENTISTS. ,' MRS. SCORESBY KOLTI.EDGES j "WORK. j MF.I.ANF.SI.W IXFI.CF.NCKS. ) Our Xew Zealand ethnologists have of late years come lo the conclusion from internal evidence that, ihe Melanesian influence on Ibe Maori race has boon much more marked I ban was though: say twenty years ago. They must have been great voyagers. I hose old Melanesian*. and they must have boon people of groat artistic culture to judge from the truces of it ilia! are to be found ill Maori carving, for instance. This connection between that side of the Pacific and people that are known to-day emphatically as '•Polynesian now receives additional interest from some conclusion--, that have been come 10 by Mrs. Sroreshv Roulh-dp*. M.A.. F.R.l'is't.S.. of Kngland. who is now homeward-bound after eighteen month." work in the Pacific, fifteen mom lis of that linn* being spent on Muiigaiova. the largest of the Gambier Group, which is about tion miles south-east of Tahiti. To carry out the work a schooner was hired at Tahiti specially for the trip. Mr. and Mrs. Routledge are no strangers to this fascinating life in that* part of the world as in furtherance of their researches in connection with Easter Island they covered in IOKMii uvai 100.1100 miles under sail alone in a little schooner.yacht called lb,,- Mann. Mrs. Routlcde-o is a member.if the Council of Ihe Folk l.oro Society, and like many other scientists -.1,,- has been irresistibly drawn to Easter Island wilh its megalit hie remain- and its unsolved problems. These immense stones that lie scattered in heaps are to the I'lu-ille as big an enigma as the pyramids are to Egypt. What like were Ihe people I hal could raise such monuments'' For yours Mr. and Mrs. Rom lodge have been working on this problem, and they have added materially to our knowledge of this interesting island. They are singularly fit led for the' work, and pract ieaJly the bc-t pari of their lives has 1 „ spent either training for the work or iv ihe work it-elf. Mr. Rout lodge, for in-:,,!,,,.. |~,„ lived among primthe race- -n-l, as tin- Midlines to study their wa\.-. and both |„. and Mrs. Routledge lived among the Akikiivu. a very piiiuiiiw- f,,ik in Hriti-ii ' Fast Africa. | Mrs. Roiiiiedgo's latest researches' have boon directed to tracing a -upposed connection ben,,.,.,, the culture of Easter Island and thai of MaiKMreva Mr* Ron.ledge found a few- analag,,,,-point-. hut mil hill? more. Far more interest in- ■"* 'be fact 1 hal -l„- |,«s ,„-,,( od ,1 very marked ii-Mueu.-e from M.-l:no«i-i. right away ,01 :ho ~ii,,,r -id , i,,, Pacific." Aunt her interest inj. di-cnerv «.„il,nt then- had existed among 1 In- Easter [--hind people a bud cult. For in-,anco. 'he man ilia, found the lir-t egg of a ■•ei'.ain migratory ten, wa- ~-Ato an important pcr-on. and : !„• ,•„-„,,,e year M '"-- ".outiedg" i board the Makura „„ |„„- „.„■ !,.,„,,. ~, n.l. and -lie will -lu.rth ~,,1,1,-1, ,],.. rp .„| t ol her IS „.,,„, |~* , r:Ml .u ;,, tl „. 1..,,.;,*,. |