OLDEST OAK.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18684, 6 May 1926, Page 4

OLDEST OAK.

LOCATED AT WAIMATE NORTH. The controversy about the oldest oak in New Zealand has brought to light a specimen \ which, being now over a century old, may with some safety be accorded the title. The tree.is in the grounds of the old Anglican mission station at Waimate North. Eecently an oak which formerly stood at Petonc, having been planted there by Mr J. Hewlett Percy in 1842,. was claimed by a son of Mr Percy as the oldest in New Zealand. This assertion is challenged in the "New Zealand Herald" by a corespondent, Mr W. Johnstone, who stated that at a former Wesleyan mission station at Waima, Hokianga, there was an enormous troe, 80ft high, planted by the Rev. John Warren iu 1840. It now appears that the Wesleyan oak when it first sprouted had an Anglican rival sixteen years old, not a great many miles away. This tree was raised from au acorn grown in Dorset, and planted at Paihia by the Rev. E. Davis, one of the early C.M.S. missionaries, soon after he arrived at the Bay of Islands in the brig Maquarie on August 15th, 1824. A few years later Mr Davis's house at Paihia was burned down. The tree, which stood nearby, was saved by being covered with wet blankets. In 1831 Mr Davis removed to Waimate, taking with him his treasured tree, which he replanted where it now stands. Its presence there in 183J was noted by Captain Fitzroy, E.N., afterwards Governor of the Colony, who wrote in his journal: "A thriving young English oak near Mr Davis's house augured well for where English oaks succeed verv many other useful trees will certainly grow. A living healthy English oak was a sight too rare near the Antipodes to fail in exciting emotion." When nearly 20ft high the tree had much of its lower bark destroyed by sheep which had been penned around it. Mr Davis, in the hope of saving its life, cut it off about 3ft from the ground. It sprouted again, and is now'' rather over 50ft high, and the branches have a spread of over 60ft. The trunk, however, is only 7ft high, measuring 10ft 9in in girth.