A bucket excavator loads coal onto a truck at a West Coast mine in 1948. At this time coal was used to power steam trains. By the late 1940s state-owned mines were producing over half of New Zealand’s coal. In 1948 coal deposits were nationalised, although this was quickly reversed by the National government two years later.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Publicity Studios Collection
Reference:
1/2-034006; F (AAQT 6401, A6307)
Photograph by Edward Percival Christensen
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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