Although licensed coal companies had the exclusive legal right to exploit the province's coal reserves, during strikes or low employment the workers mined surface outcrops in order to satisfy their personal domestic requirements or to raise a little income. The miners usually organized in teams for the work. Coal was delivered by horse-drawn carts and usually sold at a price which undercut that of the company. As the company could do little to curtail this practice it was tolerated well into the twentieth century.
