To celebrate the coronation of King George VI in May of 1937, an extraordinary tree-planting event took place across the British Empire. A weighty tome, titled "The Royal Record", was subsequently published a few years later. It documents over 15,000 such plantings, including many in New Zealand like this tree at Mahana School.

In most instances just a single tree was planted but in other cases great avenues of trees and small forests where planted. Practically every school in NZ planted a tree, with many still surviving to this day (Cadwallader, B.G., 2023).