464 E. C. ANDREWS. 



Tasmanian plateau appear to be dynamically and directly 

 related to the Victorian highlands. These Australian 

 plateaus moreover fall ;iuav in parallel Ilexes, terraces and 

 senkungsfelder to the continental shelf and thence are 

 more rapidly flexed to oceanic depths. New Zealand on 

 the other hand presents its steeply faulted ami flexed front 

 to Australia. This appears to be the case also fur Kiji and 

 New Caledonia, 1 where the low eastern island groups are 

 associated with much higher land masses to the immediate 



Taylor's idea of the Australasian development in late 

 Tertiary time is that a force acted from the Antarctic 

 region towards the north-east probably carrying the con- 

 tinent bodily with it from the Antarctic direction." Taylor, 

 however, was unaware of the peculiar and peripherally 

 arranged highlands of Eastern Australia and of the peculiar 

 relation Tasmania hears to Victoria. 



If one considers the peculiar and almost concentric 

 arrangement of the topographic divisions in Eastern Aus- 

 tralia, it will be seen that the bulk of the interior has been 

 a sinking area (now a great artesian basin 600,000 square 

 miles in area), and that from it as a centre the rings appear 

 to have gained in height' until they fell in terrace form to 

 the oceanic depths. This gives rise to the idea that 

 from the inland portion forces have been directed to the 

 periphery. 



All previous observers appear to have overlooked the 

 fact that the Australasian and New Zealand mountains 

 are those of vertical uplift and not of compression. Isostatic 

 readjustment between large "negative" and "positive" 

 elements appears to have formed these plateaus and mag- 

 nificent faults. 



1 See also Hedley for New Caledonia (d) p. 18. « Taylor, F. B.,(a) p. 212- 



