98 president's address — section c. i 



southern latitudes. Hutton believed that New Zealand and South 

 America were connected by continuous land across the central 

 Pacific, but Hedley has more recently compared the fauna of several 

 groups of Pacific Islands and has concluded that " no sign of an 

 American migration can be traced in the Central Pacific." ^ 



However, he was satisfied that biological evidence showed 

 that a former continental area had connected New Zealand, New 

 Caledonia, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, and New Guinea, with 

 a peninsula directed south eastward to Fiji. The Tonga Islands 

 and the Kermadecs are not included in this continent. In the 

 latter group the flora is closely related to that of New Zealand, no 

 less than 74 of the plants being found in the larger land. Cheese- 

 man, ^ however, considers that it is unhkely that a land connection 

 ever existed between New Zealand and the Kermadec Islands ; the 

 resemblance between the faunas is ascribed by him to the strong 

 currents which have transported many Kauri logs from New 

 Zealand to the Islands. This opinion is apparently shared by 

 Oliver. The former extension of New Zealand to the Kermadecs 

 and Tonga, and thence westwards to Fiji is, however, strongly advo- 

 cated by Speight.^ The latest researches on the Kermadec fishes 

 and echinoderms by Waite and Benham show rather unexpected 

 alliances with Australian forms. 



It appears, then, that this line through New Zealand, Kermadec^ 

 Tonga, Fiji, New Hebrides, Solomon, New Ireland, and Admiralty 

 Islands, which certainly has petrographical features in common, 

 has also much structural resemblance throughout. With the 

 possible exception of Tonga, there is strong biological evidence of 

 land connection between them in the past and of prolonged, per- 

 haps aboriginal, separation from the Eastern Pacific Islands. 



If this string of islands were ever connected, there remains the 

 question as to the date when this portion of the Pacific occupied 

 such a much more elevated position. The complete absence of 

 older fossiliferous rocks or even older sediments in all the islands,, 

 except New Caledonia, which lies somewhat to the west, makes it 

 impossible to answer this question definitely. It is, however, known 

 that in the majority of the Island groups there are tertiary lime- 

 stones now occupying elevated positions, 4,000 feet in New 

 Zealand, 1,000 feet in Tonga, 4,000 feet in Fiji, 3,000 feet in the 

 New Hebrides, and 1,000 feet in the Solomon Islands. 



In Fiji, Woolnough states that elevation has been continuous 

 from middle tertiary times to the present day. In New Zealand 

 there appears to have been a great elevation at the close of 

 the tertiary and early part of the quaternary, when all the 

 present drowned valleys on the coast line were formed by 

 ordinary sub-aerial erosion. It appears worthy of further 

 investigation to inquire whether there is absolutely no trace of 

 a similar elevation in the other island groups. If in the future it 



1 Hedley, C. : "A Zoogeographical Scheme for the Mid-Pacific," Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W, 



1899, p. 404. 

 2Cheeseman, T. : " On the Flora of the Kermadeclslands," Trans. N.Z. Inst., XX., 1887, p. 163. 

 3 Speight, R, : Trans. N.Z. Inst., XLII., 1009, p. 241. 



