Visitor 'amazed' at funding cuts

Press, 23 March 1988, Page 3

Visitor 'amazed' at funding cuts

PA [ Wellington! A visiting Californian earthquake specialist is “amazed” at [the shortsightedness of Govern-! ment [ funding cuts which i she j says are! jeopardising basic earthquake research in New Zealand. i Professor | Karen McNally, a seismologist at the University of California, is in New Zealand to I attend I a conference. [ She [ said she was surprised i by how modest j funding and facilities were. New Zealand seismological researchers had a good reputation internationally for their work. ! j “They work incredibly hard with very little.’’ [ She was “amazed” to learn that funding cuts to the! Department : of Scientific and Indus--trial Research sics Division were threatening [ the divij

I • i ; 111 sion’s national network of earthquake recording equipment. ’ i Therej were doubts the division could afford to modernise its seismographs, which were between 20 and 50 years old. I I j The network needed to be kept well main!tained and up-to-date sb that seismologists could study earthquake pat:■terns with the hope of predicting them in the future, she said. i New I Zealand, like California,! was on one of the most active fault lines in I the world, and basic research was essential. I “People I might say lignorance is bliss, but I isay ignorance can kill lyoti,” she said. Professor McNally said the effort being put into preparing for a major earthquake in Wellington seemed to be far below what was needed.