STRANGE IMAGES

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1930, Page 3

STRANGE IMAGES

EASTER ISLAND MYSTERY. THE UNFINISHED STATUES. Mr R. J. Casey, who has been livin<r on Easter Island for purposes of investigation, brings forward a new theory regarding the origin, of the mysterious statues that have puzzled scientists ever since Polynesian exploration began. In an interview on his arrival in Sydney last week, Mr. Casey said he was of opinion that. Easter Island was settled by people from the north who had reached a high level of civilisation. Gigantic idols were carved and erected, but owing to the extinction of a dynasty, the island was abandoned. The sudden abandonment of the island would account for many unfinished statues in the quarries. The transport of the huge stones, which seemed a task beyond the ability of any race not .industrially advanced, could be easily explained by the achievements of people in other parts of the world. In Asia masses of stone as great as the Easter Island monoliths had been removed with ropes. Mr. Casey’s theory conflicts with that of Professor Macmillan Brown, of New Zealand, who holds that Easter Island was the burial ground of a race that lived in a Pacific Empire, and that the sudden stoppage was due to a cataclysm which submerged the surrounding archipelago on which the population lived. Professor Brown gave many reasons for his theory, among _ them beino- that Easter Island was in the earthquake zone. As to that portion of the professor's theory, Mr. Casey leaves no doubt, for he describes life on the island as one of continuous anxiety. Two sheepfarmeis on the island started up whenever their house creaked, and one man leapt from his chair, although sounds were always comino- from the old timber. The man apologised and explained that, though the house was constructed solidly from stout timber from the wrecked Chilean ship Falcone, it was always unsteady. Several years previously the residents ordered a seismograph to study . the movements of the. island, which is a spire of solid rock from the bed of the ocean, 12,000 ft below. Even the waves on the rock caused the instrument to shake, and the earfh tremors disabled the seismograph, which was returned to Chile. The island was weird and most impressive, added Mr. Casey. The huge statues seemed to depress the island. Near most of the statues the ground was carpeted with bones. The images were totally dissimilar to any in other parts of the world. They varied between 30 and 70ft in height, and all were buried to the waists.