Our First Oak Tree

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 226, 20 June 1936, Page 19

Our First Oak Tree

In Waimate North is growing New Zealand’s oldest oak tree. When the Rev. R. Davis, one of the early C.M.S. missionaries, arrived at the Bay of Islands on August 15, 1824, he had with him an acorn, which had origi naily grown on Goat Hill, Dorset, England, He planted this acorn in the grounds of the mission station at Paihia, where he was first appointed. Some time later the mission house at Paihla was burnt down, but the young oak tree was saved by being covered with wet'blankets. The Rev. R. Davis is said to have been so proud of this tree that he left the saving of his personal goods to his fellow-missionaries and to chance, while he himself gave his whole attention to the saving of his tree. On his removal to the mission station at Waimate, North, in 1831, he took his oak tree with him and planted it where it stands to-day. Although ite hark was badly destroyed by sheep when it was about 20 feet high, the Rev. Mr? Davis saved it by cutting it down to within three feet of the ground. This drastic measure accounts for the fact that at the present day the trunk of this oak is seven feet high only, though the tree itself dias reached a height of 50 feet.—J.E.M. (Raetilii). z