FORESTRY PROJECTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3859, 28 February 1928, Page 31

FORESTRY PROJECTS.

“UNUSUALLY GAUDY OFFER.” (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON. January 10. Prospectuses relating to forestry projects in New Zealand have invariably challenged comment and criticism. Truth returns to the attack on what it terms “an unusually gaudy offer of bonds of Commercial Pine Forests, Ltd.” After giving details of what is offered by the company, the writer goes on to say:—“Apart from a passing allusion to the provision of breaks as a precaution against fires, the booklet ignores the existence of any hazards whatever in afforesta. tion. Not only tbe growth of such and such a quantity of timber, but the realisation of such and such profits on its sale 12 or 20 years hence is counted upon as a certainty, and this so-called sound investment is compared with an endowment assurance policy to the disadvantage of the latter. There is a calculation showing that on the most moderate of the figures given above a purchase of five bonds now at £175 by instalments will yield £3250 in 20 or 25 years,_ so that those who thus enter their names" on the roll of forestry investors ‘ have said good-bye to the earking care which haunts the lives of most men.’ Serious consideration* of the business even in the light of no more than common knowledge of the risks that may be encountered should convince anyone that these bonds are not an investment at all in any proper sense, but at the best a long-shot speculation/"