History of New Zealand. 319 
Tilting of some of the large blocks on a hinge-line may account in 
some cases for transitions from the features characteristic of uplifted 
to those of depressed districts, e.g., the northern part of the North 
Island has been most recently depressed while the southern part has 
been continuously uplifted, and again in the Marlborough—Nelson 
district there is a transition from the deeply drowned topography of 
the Marlborough Sounds through an east-west hinge-line in the 
vicinity of the town of Nelson to an area farther southward where 
the last movement has been one of uplift. The depressed Marlborough 
Sounds district is, however, separated from a very recently uplifted 
area to the south-east * only by the alluvium-filled Wairau Valley, 
suggesting the presence here of a fault. Faults of late date appear 
also to have determined the outlines of at least some parts of the 
New Zealand coast, especially in and about Cook Strait.” 
From considerations of the latter kind alone one might be tempted 
to conclude that the latest or post-Kaikoura movements are merely 
a continuation of the Kaikoura movements; and the formation of the 
harbour of Port Nicholson, Wellington, by the drowning of a system 
of valleys resulting from a purely local movement of subsidence * 
appears at first sight to point in the same direction. The Port 
Nicholson depression is, however, a quite exceptional feature. 
If, on the other hand, an appeal for information is made to the 
physical features of the districts strongly affected by the Kaikoura 
movements in those parts of Marlborough, Nelson, and Otago that 
have been uplifted in later times, there is evidence of a long period 
of rest—during which a cycle of erosion reached an advanced stage— 
intervening between the two sets of movements. There has, moreover, 
_ been no general renewal in later times of movement on the faults of 
Kaikoura age‘; and the origins of the earthquakes felt in New 
Zealand are, with a few exceptions, situated not within the land 
area but some distance seaward.’ It would seem that, though the 
_ Kaikoura movements may possibly be not quite extinct, they have 
very generally been succeeded, after a period of rest, by movements 
of the mysterious purely vertical kind which appear to have no 
connexion with compression. 
ConcLusION. 
Tn conclusion the general nature of the relief of the land may be 
stated in the following brief diagnosis, in which is emphasized the 
importance of the Kaikoura movements in comparison with the 
Mesozoic in determining modern features. New Zealand may be 
described as a concourse of earth-blocks of varying size and shape, 
1 C. A. Cotton, ‘‘ Preliminary Note on the Uplifted Hast Coast of Marl- 
borough’’: Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xlvi, pp. 286-94, 1913. 
26. A. Cotton, ‘‘ Fault Coasts in New Zealand’’: Geographical Review, 
vol. i, pp. 20-47, 1916. 
2 C. A. Cotton, ‘‘ Notes on Wellington Physiography’’: Trans. N.Z. Inst., 
vol. xliv, pp. 245-65, 1912. 
4G. A. Cotton, ‘‘Physiography of the Middle Clarence Valley’’: Geo- 
graphical Journal, vol. xlii, pp. 236-7, 1913. 
5 See G. Hogben, ‘‘ Notes on some Recent Earthquakes in New Zealand’”’: 
Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xlvi, pp. 301-3, 1914. 
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