Mine Alone: The Unrelenting Struggle of an Immigrant Mining Engineer from Staffordshire for Recognition in Colonial New Zealand

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From working in a Staffordshire coal mine at the age of ten Joseph Taylor came to study geology and theology, becoming a Unitarian preacher and a mining instructor. The story of the lives of Joseph and his wife Annie centres on the years 1894-1902 when he emigrated to New Zealand and began as the Collingwood layreader, going on to establish the Puponga coal mine at the northern-most tip of the South Island. Colourful characters both friendly and adversarial, some of significant power and others made arrogant by 'a little brief authority' have roles in the drama that ensues. Teh New Zealand scenes are set mainly in Nelson, in Wellington, adn especially in the Collingwood district from Puponga to Bainham in the upper Aorere valley in the early days of immigrants who did not have the status of 'settlers'.