Look at our July library display on Mining

Mining is an important part of New Zealand's history. Check out our display of books on Mining.

1. M I N I N G





M I N I N G

An important part of New
Zealand’s history.
Early Maori in New Zealand
mined minerals such as
Obsidian and Argillite,
important for tools and
weapons in the absence of iron
ore. Pakeha settlers brought
with them experience of mining
Coal, Gold, Silver, Tin, Copper,
Iron, China Clay, Limestone.

These are but a small sample of
the sources in our library
relating to the history of mining
and miners worldwide.

2. Diggers, Hatters & Whores
The story of the New Zealand Gold Rushes
Stevan Eldrid-Grigg
A thorough and carefully researched history of the
gold rushes in New Zealand, establishing a
benchmark for future work. Based on sound
scholarship, it is aimed at the wide and growing
general readership of those keen to know more
about, and to weigh up, the history of New Zealand.
The style is clear, clean and lively. The scope is the
social history of the goldfields of colonial New
Zealand, from the 1850s to the 1870s. The book
opens with a survey of worldwide rushes in the late
18
th
and the first half of the 19
th
centuries, when for
the first time in history a great wheeling movement
of gold diggers began to revolve from continent to
continent. The main body of the book looks at all the
rushes, large and small, that took place in the colony,
Coromandel, Golden Bay, Otago, Marlborough, West
Coast and Thames. The early chapters of the main
body survey rushes chronologically; the later
chapters look at rushes thematically.

3. Rushing for Gold
Life and Commerce on the Goldfields
of New Zealand & Australia
edited by
Lloyd Carpenter and Lyndon Fraser

The first book to take a trans-Tasman look at the nineteenth-
century phenomenon that was the gold rushes in Australia and
New Zealand. It explores links between the rushes, particularly
those in Victoria and Otago, to show that they were strongly
intertwined affairs. It brings together contributions from both
experienced and newly emergent researchers, who together
provide a close examination of miners, migration patterns,
ethnicities and merchant networks. The insightful analyses
and narrative accounts of the places, commerce and heritage
of the rushes reveal a pantheon of characters, from
merchants, hoteliers, financiers and policemen to vagrants,
sly grogger and entertainers, not to mention women, all of
whom prompted and populate the mythology of the era, which
this book does much to unravel and rewrite.

4. Gold fleet for caligold to california



A Trip to the Australian Diggings
& Incidents in a Miner’s Career
Edited by Hugh Anderson

Originally published in
“The Colonial and Asiatic Review
Vol 1, p 32-39
Incidents in a Miner’s career originally
published Nov 1885 to May 1886
For full details - see library catalogue.
Castlemaine
From Camp to City
1835 – 1900
Geoff Hocking
This superbly illustrated, expanded
second edition has more than 200
original photographs, historical
illustrations, paintings, engravings
and items of ephemera. Together
they tell the story of the rush to
Castlemaine, and of the early Colony
of Victoria’s formative years in the
days when ‘gold was king’.

Gold Mines of the Hauraki District
J F Downey
A comprehensive and well written
description and history of the gold
mines of the Hauraki District, Auckland
Province, New Zealand, illustrated with
maps, sections and diagrams. First
published in 1935, this is a facsimile
reprint in 2002.

5. Big River Quartz Mine,1882 – 1942
A Worthwhile Speculation
Although small by comparison with other mines in
the Inangahua gold field, it often out-performed
them in terms of financial returns. The mine
operated from 1882-1942; and was at its peak
1907-1924, when over 100 people lived in the
isolated settlement 30km from Reefton.
Today the relics around the mine and settlements
sites are a source of fascination and a major
attraction in Victoria Forest Park. In 2008 the area
was registered as a Category 1 Historic Place.
Coal, Class & Community – The United Mineworkers of NZ
1880-1960
Geographically isolated and long regarded as the
‘quintessential’ proletarians, industrial bogeymen and
revolutionaries, coal miners occupy an important place in the
history of industrial radicalism in New Zealand. Looking
behind the stereotypes, this book tells a story about New
Zealand’s industrial past, clearly identifying the central issues
and paying attention to the colourful personalities involved.
It demonstrates how miners’; sense that they had a historic
mission to lead the assault upon the capitalist system
brought them to the fore during New Zealand’s greatest
industrial upheavals: 1890 Maritime Strike, revolutionary
turmoil of 1912-1913 and 1951 Waterfront Dispute.

6. Gold Fleet for California – Charles Bateson
Forty-niners from Australia and New Zealand

When in 1848 gold was found in California, a rush began that within two
years had drawn a quarter of a million people from all round the globe - it
was the greatest migration since the Crusades. Seven thousand
Australasians responded to the lure. They jostled for berths in ships making
the long haul to San Francisco -- vessels ranging from big sailing ships to
little cutters of under twenty tons, some of them unseaworthy, many
shockingly overcrowded and under-provisioned. In 1849-50 there were over
200 sailings. The fastest ship crossed in 68 days, the slowest in 271 days.
Several were wrecked, but only one went missing; an unlucky schooner
named "I Don't Know". Few of these Forty-Niners struck it rich. Life on the
goldfields was hard, and many were glad to earn the price of a ticket home.
Ironically, those who returned were the first in a changed tide of migration,
for after the discoveries of 1851, Australia itself became the new El Dorado.
Charles Bateson's book is a contribution to maritime history in the tradition
of his celebrated earlier work, "The Convict Ships". Years of research went
into its preparation, resulting in a book that is finely detailed and
meticulously accurate. The interest of the narrative is above all a human
one - the little-known story of the people who ran mad after California --
"completely bit by the yellow fever". They had nothing, and most of them
found nothing, but they danced quadrilles on the poop as they voyaged into
the unknown. Their spirit of adventure is what lies behind this history and
gives it its deepest meaning." – abridged from Inside front cover
Appendices of ships sailing for California include date sailed, name of
vessel, master, date of arrival, no of passengers.

7. Wendron Tin
A.K. Hamilton-Jenkin

This review of tin mining in the area is
illustrated with black & white photographs
and maps, with a fold-out map to the rear
and 12 pages of tissue -guarded grid
reference maps.

The Cornish Miner in America
A.C. Todd
“The hands of Cornish miners bore scars of one of the
most sophisticated traditions of hard-rock mining in
the world. Toughened ‘Cousin Jacks’ brought
generations of toilsome underground experience to
the Americas from one of the oldest mining regions of
the world. Once there, their skill with granite and ore
won their fame as the industrial elite of western mining
camps. Heirs of a perfected system of excavation, a
valuable terminology, and the technical edge of a
culture immersed in sinkings, stopes, and winzes, they
were the world’s best hard-rock miners.
Pioneers in American mine operation, Cornish miners
utilized tribute pay to raise output and made
themselves partners with a gruelling industry.
Expertise made them company men, superintendents,
captains, and drillers, with their success dependent
almost entirely on their own initiative, coolness, and
skill. They are part of a culture that has survived
because its very roughness gave a resilience and
durability that could be transplanted and take root in
an alien soil.”


A Photographic History of Mining in South Wales
John O’Sullivan
The South Wales Valleys once boasted the richest coalfields and the
best anthracite coal in the world. Before the dawn on the 21
st
century all
but one of the hundreds of coal pits were closed; destroying jobs and
whole communities. Only Tower Colliery at Hirwaun continued to produce
coal, thanks to the bid by the miners to keep working. Miners were news
at the time of the strikes and disasters but not when they risked life, limb
and lung in the bowels of the earth to keep industry turning and the home
fires burning. Cardiff, once the biggest coal exporting port in the world, is
the magnificent city it is today because of the mine owners who made
millions and the miners who worked in damp, dusty and dangerous
conditions underground. Cardiff hailed the miners when they gave them
the Freedom of the City in 1995. This book also salutes those who Wales –
and the world – owes so much.

8. A History of Goldmining in New Zealand
J H M Salmon
Includes goldmining in the Coromandel,
Collingwood, Buller, Otago, Dunstan,
Wakatipu, Taieri, Wakamarina and West Coast,
Waihi and Thames. 1
st
edition, 1963
A Digger’s Diary at the Thames (1867)
Theophilus Cooper
01 Nov -20 Dec 1867, first published in Daily
Southern Cross 9,16,22,29 Nov, 6,14,30 Dec,1867.
Trip to the Thames Goldfields (1867), first
published in Wellington Independent 26 Oct,1867.
Shortland Street by Night (1868), first published in
Auckland Evening News 12 Mar,1868.

9. Gold Rush - Gordon Ell
Tales & Traditions of the N. Z. Goldfields
Stories tell of the characters and incidents of the
great gold rushes of the 19
th
century, traditional
information about miners’ lives, the different ways
in which gold was recovered, and the various
nationalities and clashes of personalities.
Castles of Gold - Lyndon Fraser
A History of New Zealand’s West Coast Irish
Includes information on the Irish
immigration to the diggings, working lives on
the diggings, Irish marriages on the West
Coast, religion on the goldfields, politics on
the West Coast
Coromandel Gold
Phil Moore & Neville Ritchie
Guide to the Historic Goldfields of the
Coromandel Peninsula
Includes goldfields in Thames,
Waiomo Tapu Valley, Coromandel,
Opitonui, Kuatunu, Broken Hills,
Whangamata, Maratoto, Komata,
Waitekauri Valley, Waihi and Karangahake

10. Children of the Dark
Life and Death Underground in Victoria’s England
Alan Gallop
This is true story covers territory rarely featured in history books – a dark time when
women and children toiled underground in Victorian coal mines. Extensively
researched, the book brings to life the early Victorian mining community of Silkstone,
South Yorkshire. It recreates the sad date of 04 July,1838 when a freak rain and hail
storm caused a narrow and shallow stream to burst its banks and flood the main
passageway shaft leading to the Huskar Pit, resulting in the death of 26 children aged
between seven and 15 years. News of the disaster in ‘The Times’ is read by Lord
Ashley (later the Earl of Shaftesbury) and an official enquiry is launched. Lord Ashley
and the Commissioner of the Royal Commission on mines and collieries Jelinger C.
Symons, both visit and interview mine owners and workers, and descend into the
mines to understand what conditions are really like, particularly for women and
children.
On 10 August,1842 – over four years after the disaster had brought the subject of
women and children working in Yorkshire’s coal mines to public attention - a bill was
passed to change the country’s labour laws regarding their employments.

The Kaitangata Mine Disaster of 1879 by Alma Rutherford
One naked flame and 34 men and boys perished.
On the morning of 21 February,1879 an explosion rocked the coalmine at Kaitangata
near Balclutha. On the day of the explosion, there were 47 men employed at the
mine. At first, no one knew how many of them were underground. Debris
from the explosion and the presence of fire damp – an explosive mix of methane gas
and oxygen – prevented initial rescue attempts until after midday. By early evening, it
was clear that 34 men had been underground and that none had survived. Their
names and the names of many of those left behind are included.

11. Cornwall’s China Clay Heritage
The story of china clay mining which is
explained using many photographs and
drawings. It includes a map showing the
location of many of the mines.
Miners in the Clouds - Julia Bradshaw
A Hundred Years of Scheelite Mining at Glenorchy
Commercial mining of scheelite began in 1885 and the
industry boomed during World War One and continued
until the 1980s. During World War Two the mines were
of such strategic importance that they were taken over
by the N Z Government. This is the illustrated history of
that industry.
Appendices include lists of miners from 1917 to 1942.

12. Disaster at Brunner
The Coalmine Tragedy at Brunnerton N.Z.
26 March, 1896
A Commemorative History

The Brunner Mine disaster in Brunnerton on the West Coast
was the worst mining disaster in New Zealand’s history. Almost
half of the entire Brunner underground work force died in the
workforce, a total of 65 men. At about 9.30 am that morning a
sound like artillery fire was heard, and smoke was seen coming
out of the pithead. The area of the Brunner Mine in 1896 was
over 230 acres. There was no damage to the buildings at the
entrance because the explosion was so deep into the mine.
This disaster was in a time when New Zealand was in a
depression and the disaster left over 230 widows, children and
parents in need of assistance. Most of the names of those
affected are mentioned.
Copper Mining on the Wandle - E.N. Montague
With particular reference to Merton and Mitcham
Whereas the establishment of copper mills at various locations throughout the Wandle
Valley during the late 17C and early 18C occasionally finds a brief mention in the
respective parish histories, the phenomenon overall has so far attracted only passing
comment and, rather surprisingly, appears no to have stimulated any detailed study by
industrial historians. This booklet brings together the more readily
available information concerning those mills lying within Merton and Mitcham, to
consider the factors behind this sudden emergence of the industry in the area.

13. The Heritage and Environment of
Coal Gorge
and the
Brunner Suspension Bridge
Coal Gorge and the southern Paparoa area of the Grey District, West
Coast is a unique place on account of its heritage and environment.
Human contact by Tangata Whenua had minimal impact but with
European settlement the place was radically transformed.
Nineteenth century European settlers believed that with progress
including industrialisation New Zealand could become the Britain of
the South. Coal Gorge became a major coalmining centre with coke
and fireclay manufacturing industries. The immigrant miners and
their families formed the distinctive Brunnerton community.
Monopoly capitalism and mining activity did not greatly benefit the
place or its people. Conflict, tragedy and degradation of the
environment are part of the legacy. In the areas of industrial
relations and accident compensation their struggle has impacted on
national legislation. The recently renewed Brunner suspension
bridge has associations with major events such as the Mari-time
Strike 1890 and the Brunner Mine Disaster 1896. Its long history of
industrial and community use also illustrates changes in transport
technology. Its construction, the issue of tolls and several renewals
have been occasions of community activism and cohesion. In the
post-industrial phase the heritage of the place is being revisited and
the Gorge environment enhanced. Similar developments are taking
place on other West Coast sites.

14. A History of Iron Mining in Cornwall
Tony Brooks
There were Iron Mines throughout Cornwall and this
book describes the history of 70 workings. Included are
larger mines such as the Reformed Mine visited by
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1846, to small
operations such as Wheal Edith where iron was worked
alongside china clay. Information is included from a
WW2 study carried out by a government geologist into
the UK industry during the 1940s which provides further
glimpses of the UK industry. This thoroughly researched
volume contains maps, plans and photographs, both full
colour and black and white