In late 1918 and early 1919 General
Paul Pau, a French solider, toured Australia and New Zealand on a post-war diplomatic visit. As part of that visit, he toured the forestry workings in West Auckland, hosting a picnic at Anawhata and witnessing the felling of a large kauri tree [1]. To celebrate this visit, a large tree on Forest Hill Road was named “General Pau” in his honour. That honour lasted only a brief moment, as no reference to the tree by that name has been found past the visit and a photograph from the 1920s [2].

The tree was reasonably well-known, being the subject of a photograph before the General’s visit, and mentioned in a newspaper article nominating this tree and a smaller neighboring tree “near the top of the Forest Hill road…”, along with Clark’s and Bishop’s Kauri in Titirangi (see AR/1443 and AR/1443) as being the closest remaining “big” kauri to Auckland proper [3].

The tree is on private property, and on the Auckland Council’s list of notable trees, but can be glimpsed looking east down into Oratia valley from Forest Hill Road, at the headwaters of Potter Stream (Smillie, M.J., 2021).

References
[1] “Our French Visitors,” Auckland Star, p. 6, 27 January 1919.
[2] W. Beattie, THE GENERAL PAU KAURI, NIHOTUPU. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections JTD-14F-02126, circa 1920.
[3] “Bushman's Craft: Logging at Titirangi,” Auckland Star, p. 8, 9 September 1932.