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A huge Macrocarpa with links to KM due to be felled in Karori Wellington

13 April 2015

A huge Macrocarpa on the school grounds above the Katherine Mansfield Courts/Memorial is the last remaining of a strand of conifers that would have been a significant feature of the school when Katherine Mansfield attended. This tree is due to be felled to make way for a cheap transportable classroom which would a tragic loss of such a historically significant tree where generations of our children, including Katherine Mansfield, have, and will continue to, "hold court".

The likely references to this tree come from The Dolls House:
"...She held quite a court under the huge pine trees at the side of the playground..."
"..The little girls sat under the pines eating their thick mutton sandwiches.."
"..The children stood together under the pine trees, and suddenly, as they looked at the Kelveys eating out of their paper, always by themselves, always listening, they wanted to be horrid to them."

The on-line references are shown below:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/5364822/Conquering-Karori
"Mansfield went to Karori School from 1895-98 and the school figures briefly in her story The Doll's House"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karori
"author Katherine Mansfield attended the school from 1895-98[30] and there is a memorial to her at the school on a concrete field called the Katherine Mansfield field, located in front of a tree she wrote about in one of her stories."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/the-wellingtonian/features/7051288/The-site-of-NZs-first-lunatic-asylum
"Although the school has been revamped in recent years, a memorial to its most famous pupil, Katherine Mansfield, remains.
Mansfield attended Karori School in 1895 and wrote about one of the trees in the school grounds in her stories. "