NZHistory, New Zealand history online - coal mining

Blackball miners' strike cartoon

The strike that ended New Zealand’s reputation as the ‘country without strikes’ broke out in 1908 on the West Coast. In the Blackball coal mine, miners had only 15 minutes to eat their ‘crib’ or lunch – and their manager wanted to increase the working day to 10 hours. The union decided to challenge the existing compulsory arbitration system by striking for a longer crib time and an eight-hour day. In February 1908 one of the union leaders, Pat Hickey, refused to finish his pie at lunchtime when the manager told him his 15 minutes were up. Hickey and six of his supporters were fired. The rest of the Blackball Miners’ Union went out on strike in protest.

For three months the miners resisted every effort to force them back to work. Finally the mining company gave in, gave the sacked men their jobs back and agreed to their demands. This was a massive blow to the arbitration system, and had an impact on unions all around the country for years to come. The various local miners’ unions joined with other unions in a national Federation of Labour – nicknamed the ‘Red Feds’ by its critics – which insisted on negotiating directly with employers and reserving the right to strike.

Credit:

New Zealand Free Lance, 16 May 1908

Alexander Turnbull Library
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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blackball

strikes

coal mining

workers rights

trade unions

Nightcaps mine

This 1907 image shows the coal mine at Nightcaps, the site of the southernmost labour dispute in the Great Strike of 1913.

One hundred of the mine’s workers went on strike on 9 November 1913 in support of miners and watersiders around the country. Only 15 men refused to join the strike, and the Nightcaps miners stayed out until early January 1914. After the mine manager reported trouble, Inspector Samuel Norwood of the Invercargill police visited the town on 12 November, only to find that all was peaceful. Apart from a few minor incidents, this peace was maintained throughout the strike. Management helped set up a new union under the arbitration act in December 1913. In early January the majority of Nightcaps miners returned to work, although management refused to re-employ the unionists they saw as the ringleaders of the strike.

Credit:

Auckland Weekly News, 27 June 1907

Auckland City Libraries
Ref: AWNS-19070627-7-2

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Taupiri coal mine

Two relatively small strikes sparked off the 1913 Great Strike. On 6 October 1913 the Taupiri Coal Mines Company of Huntly dismissed 16 miners, including three union officials, all of whom they regarded as Red Feds. The Huntly miners voted to strike until the men were reinstated. They walked off the job on 19 October and remained on strike until January 1914.

See more images of Huntly during the 1913 strike (Flickr)

Credit:

Auckland Weekly News, 13 November 1913

Auckland City Libraries
Main image ref: AWNS-19131030-43-1
Other image ref: AWNS-19131030-50-1

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End of the 1913 strike in Huntly

A scene from the Huntly coal strike: officials of the old union are evicted from their office by members of the new union.

On 15 January 1914, a group of strikebreakers returning from the mines made their way to the Miners’ Union Hall. They were led by Stuart Dixon, president of the newly formed arbitrationist union, and accompanied by mounted police. About 15 men entered the hall. They forcibly evicted Bill Wood, president of the old union, and a number of striking miners from the union office. The new union then took possession of the Miners’ Hall.

See more images of Huntly during the 1913 strike (Flickr)

Credit:

Auckland Weekly News, 24 January 1914

Auckland City Libraries
Ref: AWNS-19140122-54-2

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Hikurangi coal mine

This photograph of one of the three coal mines at Hikurangi, 16 km north of Whāngārei, was taken between 1907 and 1921. On 6 November 1913 the Hikurangi miners voted unanimously to strike in support of their comrades at Huntly. Around 200 workers from the three mines went on strike. The coal strike also affected local industries such as the cement works and dairy factories.

Around 15 December an arbitrationist union was formed and began to enrol men. Work was not resumed until 5 January 1914, by when the arbitrationist union was established at the three mines. Those regarded as ringleaders of the strike were blacklisted. Not until 1920 did the new Hikurangi miners’ union shed its reputation for siding with the bosses and begin taking a more militant stand.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference no:1/2-006294-F
Photograph taken by Frederick George Radcliffe
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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Rūnanga miners' hall

The coal-mining areas of the West Coast were the heartland of the United Federation of Labour. The large 1908 miners’ hall at Rūnanga, 8 km north of Greymouth, hosted many meetings during the strike.

On a number of occasions miners from surrounding settlements descended on Westport and Greymouth to support local watersiders and ensure the strike was being maintained. On 24 November large numbers of miners from Rūnanga and Blackball travelled by cycle, car and foot to Brunnerton after hearing that the miners there were considering going back to work. The Brunner mine stayed closed.

See images of Rūnanga during the 1913 strike here (Flickr)

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference no:1/2-179351-G
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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The 1913 strike in the South Island

Although the 1913 strike had its biggest impact on Auckland and Wellington, the South Island’s cities and mining towns were also affected.

Christchurch

Lyttelton wharf during the strike

In Christchurch the strike was largely centred on Lyttelton. The wharves were quiet from 30 October until 18 November, when attempts to load the ships were thwarted by strikers who invaded the wharves. The next day special constables began enrolling and a camp was set up at Addington. Early on the morning of the 25th around 800 mounted and foot special constables made their way over the Port Hills and took the strikers by surprise. Once the specials controlled the wharves, ‘scab’ workers from a new arbitrationist union began loading and unloading ships.

During the strike the newsboys of Lyttelton, mostly sons of watersiders, struck in solidarity. They were well organised with their own pickets and strike fund.

Dunedin

Strike meeting in Queen’s Gardens

Only the watersiders and shipwrights went on strike initially in Dunedin and Port Chalmers. They were later joined – reluctantly – by the seamen, who followed the strike call of their national executive. An arbitrationist union was set up on 7 November and specials began enrolling on the 17th.

Mounted specials from country districts were camped at Tahuna Park, but there were no violent clashes with strikers. The most dramatic incident was the arrest of the entire strike committee, all six members of which were charged with intimidation.

The West Coast

Denniston during 1913 strike

The coal-mining areas of the Grey Valley and the Buller district were the heartland of UFL support. Watersiders at Westport struck on 29 October, followed by their Greymouth counterparts on 3 November. Coal miners also went on strike. During November and early December the wharfies and coal miners had virtual control of the Grey Valley and Buller, including Westport and Greymouth. Supplies began running out, as shipowners refused to send in ships which could not load coal.

The miners’ flying column

On a number of occasions miners from surrounding settlements descended on Westport and Greymouth to ensure the strike was being maintained. Large numbers of miners from Runanga and Blackball also travelled by cycle, car and foot to Brunnerton when the strikers heard that the miners there were considering going back to work. The Brunner mine stayed closed.

In the first months of the strike authorities in Westport and Greymouth did not attempt to enrol specials. They realised that specials would be outnumbered by strike supporters. In late December 1913 large numbers of regular police were sent to the West Coast. Specials were now enrolled. In Greymouth fear of reprisals against volunteers meant specials had to be conscripted by order of the local magistrate.

In January 1914 some miners began forming arbitrationist unions with the mining companies’ support. By mid-January miners on the West Coast had voted to return to work.

Outbreak of the 1913 strike

Huntly Miners’ Union Hall

Two relatively small strikes sparked off the 1913 Great Strike. On 6 October 1913 the Taupiri Coal Mines Company of Huntly dismissed 16 miners, including three union officials, all of whom they saw as Red Feds. The Huntly miners voted to strike until the men were reinstated and walked off the job on 19 October. They remained on strike until January 1914. There was little trouble at Huntly, where the police took a conciliatory approach.

Wellington waterfront dispute

The angel of arbitration

The waterfront strike sprang from a dispute between the Wellington shipwrights and the Union Steamship Company over travelling time, wages and conditions. The small shipwrights’ union was affiliated with the Wellington watersiders, one of the largest and most militant unions in the Federation of Labour. The shipwrights went on strike on 18 October.

A bad time to strike?

Some union leaders were skeptical about the chances of a successful watersiders’ and miners’ strike. October was a quiet time on the wharves. Shearing was just beginning, and the harvest and slaughtering seasons were still to come. It was also a poor time for a coal strike, with the weather getting warmer. With lambing and calving finished, many farmers were able to leave their farms to act as special constables or ‘scab’ labour.

On the morning of 22 October, watersiders held a stop-work meeting to discuss the shipwrights’ dispute. On returning to work they found their jobs had been allocated to other workers, a serious issue in a casualised occupation. The watersiders called a strike until they were reinstated in their jobs.

The Wellington shipowners immediately formed a ‘defence committee’ and cancelled the existing agreement with the watersiders. The employers offered to re-employ the workers, but only if the union agreed to register under the arbitration act or pay a bond against striking. The watersiders rejected these proposals.

Remembering the 1913 strike

The employers’ aim was to split the watersiders away from the United Federation of Labour (UFL) and force them back under the discipline of the arbitration system. The watersiders wanted to return to their jobs under the old agreement. On 29 October the watersiders handed the dispute over to the United Federation of Labour. Negotiations broke down over the employers’ insistence that the union register under the arbitration act. Employers’ defence committees in Wellington and Auckland openly sought the destruction of the UFL.

The strike spreads

Within a week watersiders around the country had struck in sympathy. The only ports that remained operating were Napier, Gisborne, Whanganui, Timaru and Bluff, all with arbitration unions, and Hokitika, which had no union.

Hikurangi mine

Coal miners also went out around country. Pits from Hikurangi, north of Whāngārei, to Nightcaps in Southland closed. Only a few small coal mines in Otago remained open, again with arbitrationist unions.

The gold mines did not go on strike. Waihī was still under the control of the arbitrationist victors of 1912, who opposed the Federation of Labour. The unions at the Waiuta and Reefton mines supported the strike but believed the best way to do so was to stay at work and contribute to the strike fund.

Seamen around the country joined the strike at different times. The militant Wellington branch of the Federated Seamen’s Union struck during the first week of November, when many seamen joined the street protests. In Auckland the seamen went out after special constables took over the wharves on 8 November.

Strikers at Denniston during 1913 strike

A meeting of strikers at Denniston during the 1913 strike. The coal-mining settlements at Denniston and Burnett’s Face were strongholds of support for the strike. Miners from Denniston descended on Westport to help the watersiders shut down the port. Denniston itself was relatively quiet during the strike, apart from some incidents of sabotage. The most significant of these was an attempt to blow up the winding gear that operated the Denniston Incline. Both supporters and opponents of the strike accepted that this was the action of ‘irresponsible sympathisers’ acting without the sanction of the union.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference no:1/2-019577
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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Denniston Incline

Denniston Incline (1879)

Hell on earth halfway up ‘The Hill’

The boosters called it the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’. The poor sods forced to slog away in the mines up ‘The Hill’ sang a different tune:

‘Damn Denniston
Damn the track
Damn the way both there and back
Damn the wind and damn the weather
God damn Denniston altogether.’

They had reason to complain, for Denniston was a miserable hole, a gimcrack clutter of corrugated iron and weatherboard buildings clinging precariously to a bleak plateau. Thick fog could hang around for weeks on end, as could steady drizzle. In between times it bucketed down, yet little grew here apart from rust, emphysema and the politics of dissent. The soil was so thin they had to send bodies down the incline for burial elsewhere.

Denniston (named after R.B. Denniston, the company’s surveyor and colliery manager) was the bleak jewel in the Westport Coal Company’s crown. It was also the country's most productive coalfield. From its offices in Water Street, Dunedin, Westport Coal collaborated with the Union Steam Ship Company to dominate the colony’s fuel and transport industries. Between 1879 and 1967, 13 million tonnes of coal was sent down the incline to Union Steam Ship Company colliers at nearby Westport.

It was a technical triumph. The incline plunged precipitously, 548 m in a distance of just 1670 m, with some grades as steep as 1 in 1.25 (80%). Two water-operated brakes, Upper Brake and Middle Brake, slowed the progress of the counter-balancing wagons (i.e., descending full wagons pulled up empty ones) down the two inclines to the railhead at Conns Creek.

The regenerating bush is reclaiming the upper (number one) incline, but the lower (number two) incline can be admired from a nearby walking track. You can see rusting wagons, wire by the kilometre, stretches of track, and an impressive drive tower at the top of the incline. A few people still inhabit the township, where the Friends of The Hill have restored the old schoolhouse. Tracks lead to other former mines and features. Keep to them and watch out for old shafts.

Further information

This site is item number 55 on the History of New Zealand in 100 Places list.

On the ground

The Friends of The Hill run a museum in the township. Elsewhere, there are plenty of signs, markers and other objects of interest.

Websites

Book

Len Richardson, Coal, class & community, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1995

Credit:

Text: Gavin McLean, 2013

Main image: Hannah Sutherland (Flickr)

Other contemporary image: David Maciulatis (Flickr)

Historic images:

Alexander Turnbull Library
References: 1/2-035122-F and 1/2-035121-F (taken by Henry Thomas Lock) and WA-06790-F (taken by Whites Aviation)
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of their images.

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Date established:

1879