Airstrip May Get
p. 31 · Read in the full issue
That Easter Island Airstrip May Get Built After All
After years of talk, it seems that the Chilean Government really is going to build an inter national airstrip on Easter Island, its lonely outpost with the mysterious stone statues in the far eastern Pacific.
According to “Man in the Pacific”, a publication of the Pacific Scientific Information Center, of Honolulu, a medical expedition from America’s Mc- Gill University is to collect in formation on Easter Island early next year “before the Chilean Government builds a proposed airstrip, thereby permanently changing the isolated state of the island”.
The expedition is being sup
ported by the World Health Organisation and will comprise about 20 medical research workers from universities in Canada and the United States.
The expedition aims to survey Easter Island’s entire popula tion of about 1,200. The in formation will be analysed to throw light on the physical characteristics of such isolated people, and it is hoped that later studies will be able to trace changes resulting from increased communications.
Two anthropologists will ac company the expedition. One of them, Richard F. Salisbury, of McGill Universtity will make an economic survey of the popu lation before the use of money becomes widespread.
Easter Island’s population of about 1,200 has grown from only 111 in 1877.