The network of strong-motion earthquake recorders, maintained throughout New Zealand by the Engineering Seismology Section of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, is described. The instruments are either deployed as ground instruments to measure potential earthquake attack on structures, or in structures, e.g. buildings, dams and industrial installations, to record structural response. Details are given of installation of instruments, maintenance, laboratory work, record retrieval and digitisation, costs and staffing for the network. Future developments mooted include an improved digitising system, the introduction of an improved version of the existing mechanical-optical instrument in 1979, and, in the long term, the introduction of an entirely new digital recorder, having an electrical output from its accelerometers, which will make possible the transmission of data by telephone or radio link.