On 11 November 1919, on the first anniversary of Armistice Day, Ernest Yates and Joseph Batty, watched by about 30 Karaka and Te Hihi residents, planted two memorial oak trees at the Kidd Road entrance to the Karaka Recreation Club’s reserve.
Seventy-four years later, on the 75th commemoration of Armistice Day, local residents again gathered in front of what is now known as Kidd Elliott Park, to unveil a commemorative plaque at the foot of the peace trees. Two of those present, Jack Kidd and his sister Flora, had attended the original ceremony as young children.
'Sixty-five Years for Te Hihi's Peace Trees', Franklin County News, 16/11/1993, p. 1; Te Hihi School: Celebrating a Century of Education, Karaka, 2014, p. 116.
Bruce Ringer, Auckland Libraries, 2014.