Our deeds disguise us.  People need endless time to try on their deeds, until each knows the proper deeds for him to do.  But every day, every hour, rushes by.  There is no time.

- John Locke
 

29 April 1998

Mr Sid Singh
Joseph Banks Trusts
Post Office Box 5108
Wellington

Dear Mr Singh:

RE: Register for Flat Rock Forests Trust

I called Registry Managers (New Zealand) Limited in Auckland regarding the register of unitholders for the Flat Rock Forests Trust (one of the family of New Zealand Development Trusts).  Though the trust deed says, "Any Unit Holder shall be entitled to inspect the Register free of charge…", the person to whom I spoke charged me $80 to send me what I was told would be a copy of the register.  When that copy arrived, I discovered that it was merely a name and address file, not a register at all.  It did not contain the information I sought - namely the date on which the name of every person was entered in the Register as a Unit Holder, the date on which each Unit Holder acquired his units, and the date on which any person ceased to be a Unit Holder.

I called Registry Managers back and spoke to Mark Knight, Corporate Registry Services.  He said he was unable to provide me with the information I had requested as your company (Joseph Banks Trusts) had not forwarded that information to Registry Managers when the register was handed over sometime in the last quarter of 1995.  Likewise, the Trust Manager, now holders of the register, say they have only the information passed on to them by Registry Managers.  So, it seems, the missing information resides only with you.

Accordingly, I am writing to you to request past information from your files from the last register you produced.  Also, it would be helpful if you would provide the date the register was transferred to Auckland.

Since, according to your receptionist, you managed the register for Flat Rock Forests Income Trust as well and, according to Companies Office records, Flat Rock Forests Income Trust is a separate class of units within Flat Rock Forests Trust, I anticipate that unitholders from both trusts will be included.

I am most grateful for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,
Ruth Hatch

Mr Singh's response was to advise me to try Registry Managers again; I never received the information I sought.  So what, exactly, was Flat Rock Forests Income Trust?  Perhaps the SFO will discover that.

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 Table of Contents.  Or you may wish to visit the Forestry Trust Table of Contents to read how a unit trust went bust.  Or the Topics Table of Contents 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, 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...