Canterbury's heritage buildings damaged in the September 4 earthquake will get up to $10 million for restoration work from the Government.
The funding was announced by Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Christopher Finlayson in Christchurch yesterday.
"The heritage buildings are extremely important and we want to do our bit to see them restored. The Historic Places Trust has been working very hard to assess the level of damage and I'm very proud of the work they have done," he said.
The Government would work with the Canterbury mayors to distribute the money to where it was needed, Mr Finlayson said.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said the $10 million was a serious start towards restoration, but it was for all of Canterbury not just Christchurch city.
Two University of Canterbury academics say the earthquake was not the predicted "big one", and more work needed to be done to improve building codes to prevent greater damage in another earthquake.
The level of ground shaking was only about 60% of what buildings were designed for, Prof Andy Buchanan and Associate Prof Greg MacRae, from the university's College of Engineering said.
"Our concern is that people are saying that the current standards are more than enough because everything survived so well, but there are others of us saying let's be very careful here because there is still a larger earthquake predicted," Prof Buchanan said.
The strengthened masonry buildings in Christchurch had survived well, while many unstrengthened buildings had suffered much damage.
Concrete buildings generally fared well, although that would not be the case in a bigger quake.
Research carried out at the university in earthquake-proofing buildings was a key factor in restricting damage in the city to a predicted $4 billion, Prof Buchanan said.
Researchers were trying to design and protect buildings so they would withstand the biggest of earthquakes, and more research was needed.
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said yesterday more than 1700 of the nearly 61,000 insurance claims made for minor damage had been assessed and the first payments made.
"This is an encouraging start to the recovery phase of our response efforts, but we know there are still people waiting for inspections and I want to assure them reinforcements are on the way."
Canterbury is still being subjected to a flurry of seismic activity, with aftershocks of at least magnitude 3 striking yesterday, and a 4.4 magnitude quake during the night.
The Red Cross Canterbury Earthquake Commission has given more than $110,000 in emergency grants this week to 44 households whose homes have been ruined by the quake.
Fifteen officers from the Southern police district will go to Canterbury next week to relieve police and army staff patrolling earthquake affected areas.
• Three sergeants and 12 constables from Dunedin, Invercargill, Wanaka, Oamaru and the district highway patrol team would be based in Christchurch from Tuesday until Sunday supporting the Canterbury police and NZ Army in Christchurch and Kaiapoi, Southern police district commander Superintendent Bob Burns said.
- NZPA/Staff reporter
