Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

- Calvin Coolidge
 

Regarding the Flat Rock Forests Trust: we had a hearing in the High Court in Palmerston North where we requested the appointment of an independent inspector.  I filed five affidavits in support of the request and three other people filed one affidavit each supporting the appointment.  Our request was successful.  (See current news on the Home page for more information and a link to a copy of the judgment handed down by the High Court.)  I understand we broke new ground - I don't believe any group of unitholders has petitioned the High Court to have an inspector appointed before now.  The Inspector's report was, unfortunately, not as thorough as I had hoped.

Fortunately, the Serious Fraud Office stepped in.  The man responsible for setting up the trust was tried on 5 counts of fraud and was found guilty on 3 of those counts.  Sadly, no money was available to be returned to unitholders.

I'll continue to keep this site updated with new developments.  I'm confident for the future and feel we have a slight chance of accomplishing something positive.  (Maybe more than one thing.)  In any case, I ended up with this website.

Do you like our website?  As of May 2005, we've been averaging over 7,000 sessions a day.  Lots are New Zealanders, but people have viewed this site from all over the world. 

Appointment of Inspectors Other Interesting Unit Trust Act Clauses

Assuming you navigated your way here (using the buttons at the bottom of the page), that means you're now finished with the forest-related pages.  You'll want to check our Topics pages.  General topics include ageing-and-dying, animals, animation (a fast connection is recommended! but you can see some funny short video clips there), drugs, education, environment, flying, history, humour, immigration, investment in forestry, information-and-technology, intellectual-and-entertaining, lifestyles, men, money, New Jersey, oddities, photographs, playing cards, prisons, relationships, science, society-and-culture, terrorism, Wellington, and working.  This isn't at the astrology level, but rather is a collection of eclectic articles that attempt to reflect the complexity of contemporary life.  I think you'll find this website to be fairly unique, overall.

Clicking "Up" below will take you back to the main forest-related page.  Then, clicking "Next" from that page will take you to Topics.  (The navigation buttons will eventually take you through nearly every page of this website - and there are more than 1,000 of them.)

Alternatively, you may wish to go to the contact page where you can leave a message for us and/or check out the URLs sent in thus far by other unitholders.  (Let me know if you'd like us to add yours, or your brief bio/photo and/or email address.)  Also, check out the message board.  [Actually, when we switched to a new web host, I lost my message board because the new host didn't support that format.  I've had a new board up for quite some time but I don't especially like the way it works.  I've never bothered to start a thread (although one person has, and I'm grateful - thanks to him, it hasn't been a complete waste).  If you'd like to leave a message there, please feel free to do so but it may be some time before anyone realises it's there.  We'll be all excited when we finally spot it, though.]  My son the webmaster informs me that he may be installing something easier to use in the near future.

And THANKS for stopping by!  Say hello?

For news articles on the Flat Rock Forests Trust, forestry, the Serious Fraud Office, one immigrant family's experiences, immigration specialists, fraud, juries, logging, and more, check out the News Index.  Or you may wish to visit the Forestry Trust Index to read how a unit trust went bust.  Or the Topics Index which offers a different approach to lots of topics - among them poisonous insects, eating dogs, what's addictive, training vs teaching, tornados, unusual flying machines, history, humour, wearable computers, IQ tests, health, Y chromosomes, share options, New Jersey's positive side, oddities, ageing, burial alternatives, capital punishment, affairs, poverty, McCarthyism, the most beautiful city in the world, neverending work and more...