The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 3 (June 1, 1935)
The Island of the Stone Men
The Island of the Stone Men.
When Dr. Buck visited New Zealand at the beginning of this year, I remarked to him that the only Polynesian scene he did not seem to have visited in his anthropological cruising was Easter Island, famous and mysterious Rapanui. “Yes,” he said, “and I am disappointed that I have not been able to set foot there yet, but it is not an easy place to reach; and then there was a French expedition there last year, and the Bishop Museum heads thought that probably its members would be able to carry out the work necessary.”
But then no one with Te Rangihiroa's special knowledge and qualifications has yet visited Rapanui. All the previous scientific inquirers have required interpreters to communicate with the native inhabitants, and research under these conditions is never satisfactory. No wonder the savants who tried to unveil the secrets of Rapanui described the natives as reticent, often sullen. I am sure a sympathetic New Zealander like Te Rangihiroa—speaking the tongue that is practically identical with that of Rapanui, and besides that conversant with the various other dialectical forms of Maori in the islands—would soon establish good accord with the remnant of the Easter Islanders on that melancholy wind-swept mountain top of theirs, last peak, perhaps, of some long-vanished land. I hope Te Rangihiroa will yet be able to see these farthest-east Maoris for himself.