Planted by Bishop William Williams an Anglican Missionary (Johnston, 1986).

Burstall's number 53 in his book, where it was noted in "full confidence" that it was the largest of its species in New Zealand, and potentially in the world [1].

The tree was one of a number of plantings, now much reduced, at the site of the former Waerenga-a-hika mission, donated to the Crown by the Taupara whanau in 1857 for the purposes of building a school, started in 1859 by the Anglican Church.

The mission site was at the site of the decisive battles between followers of the Pai Mārire movement and government/allied Ngāti Porou forces: The land around the mission had been taken over by the Pai Mārire in early 1865 but the pā they built was then besieged by the government forces until a surrender in late November 1865 [1,2].

The school burnt down in 1937, and was not rebuilt due to lack of funds. The Waerenga-a-hika Trust Act 1947 and the subsequent Te Whanau-a-Taupara Trust Empowering Act 2003 means that the land still supports the education of Whanau-a-Taupara and other Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki children.

Smillie, 2022

References:
1 Burstall & Sale, Great Trees of New Zealand, 1984
2 'Pai Mārire', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/pai-marire/pai-marire-intro, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 22-Oct-2021