Kōrero: Coal and coal mining

This coal seam – labelled ‘35 feet seam’ – in the Mokihinui Coal Company mine in the Buller area north of Westport was mined in the 1880s. The British miners who came to work on West Coast coalfields must have been impressed by the size of the seams, as they were used to working seams no more than 2 or 3 metres thick. Further south in the Paparoa and Brunner fields, seams up to 20 metres thick were found.