Civil Defence Conference Begins At Lincoln

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30294, 21 November 1963, Page 25

Civil Defence Conference Begins At Lincoln

Seventy South Island civil defence controllers from north of the Waitaki river: at Lincoln College on Tues-1 day. The aims of the confer-1

i ence are to bring controllers, i their staffs, and regional committee members up to date i on aspects of civil defence and to assits them in the development of plans. After being welcomed by Professor I. E. Coop, acting principal of the college, the conference began its official programme when Dr. D. M. Garner, of the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, spoke on the problems and dangers of seismic seawaves. Although no coastal town in the Dominion had experienced a tsunami, or seismic seawave, the possibility of one occurring could not be discounted, Dr. Garner said. A tsunami was noi-mally preceded by a trough in the water which exposed the sea bed of a bay or harbour. Unless warned. persons would rush out on to the harbour bed and be overcome by the wave pulse which was coming. The danger of this could not be emphasised too often. Dr. Garner said that the deeper an ocean the more rapidly a seismic seawave moved. The waves were usu-

ally caused by earthquakes, submarine landslides, or erupi tion of submarine volcanoes. The manager of the commercial branch of the Christchurch Post Office (Mr J. J. Cronin) told the conference about the communications system which could allow messages of such wave threats to be passed throughout the country. A model of a seaside town was set out on the floor and used for demonstration purposes by Major R. G. Aitken. Later delegates broke up into groups for discussion of problems. A second course for representatives from south of the Waitaki river will be held at the college between November 25 and 28.