Blackball

Blackball is a small town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, approximately 29 km from Greymouth. Blackball was named after the Black Ball Shipping Line, which leased land in the area to mine for coal. It was formerly known as Joliffetown and Moonlight Gully. Blackball is a centre of New Zealand radicalism and workers' militancy. It was the birthplace of the New Zealand Labour Party, which followed the 1908 miners 'cribtime' strike, at ten weeks the longest in New Zealand history. In the 1913 Great Strike, Blackball miners were the last to return to work, in 1914. During the strike they had picketed miners in nearby Brunner and had burnt down the secretary of the 'arbitration' (scab) union's home. In 1925 the...