776 E. C. ANDREWS 



It is therefore permissible, perhaps, to infer that the Tasman Sea 

 is of great age, especially in its more southern portions, inasmuch as 

 it appears to have been a barrier to common or related ore deposition 

 between Australasia and New Zealand through the ages. 



This of course does not imply that Australasia and New Zealand 

 have not been closer together in the past, nor that Australasia has 

 not extended considerably farther to the east in former times, 

 especially in its northeastern portions; it simply suggests that some 

 great agency which controlled the growth of Australasia and New 

 Zealand appears to have admitted a negative or relatively sunken 

 area from early times in the region of the Tasman Sea, and that this 

 agency had faded away to epeirogenic movements in the Austral- 

 asian area while yet it was vigorously folding the New Zealand 

 rocks. 



All this appears to be in harmony with the general contention 

 of Marshall 1 who maintains that New Zealand, and not Australia, 

 lies on the real border of the Pacific. Marshall, however, approaches 

 the subject from a point of view entirely different from that taken 

 in the present note. 



1 P. Marshall, "Presidential Address," Geological Section, Australian Assoc. Adv. 

 Set. Sydney, XIII, (1911), 90-99. 



