Trees replacing Sheep & Beef

Here is an old article taken from The Dominion
newspaper, April 28, 1995: "...New Zealand Forestry Exchange has indicated that
sheep and beef farmers are continuing to move from sheep and beef production on
the hill country to forestry.

The exchange says that if the present rate of shift continues
it is likely that over the next 10 years the amount of plantation forest outside
the corporate holdings will rise from around 30 per cent to 50 per cent...

While forestry was eating into traditional hill country
production, dairying was taking up more of the better quality land on the flat
pastures.

Dairying was now by far the most profitable land use...

Apart from dairying, venison was the next best investment,
followed by prime lamb production, then clearwood plantation forestry, store
sheep and prime beef...

Since the exchange had been established it had observed that
seller, and their advisers, often had unrealistic expectations of what a forest
was worth...

But the exchange had the ability to mix and match forests to
meet investors' requirements.

'We are likely to be able to better market 10 hectares of
18-year-old forest at Kerikeri if it can be packaged with 10 hectares of
14-year-old forest at Raglan, 10 hectares in the Wairarapa and 10 hectares in
Marlborough to make up the 40-hectare investment...

A geographic spread would be marketed as a benefit because it
spread the risk in case of fire or a storm like Cyclone Bola..."

Readers of our newspapers and books, and listeners to our
lectures will know that we made the statement years ago that New Zealand was
now responsible for two things i.e. pine trees and tourism.

The reason we put this article in this month's Omega
Times is that this writer and his wife have just been travelling in
Northland doing a lecture tour, and were absolutely amazed at the amount of logs
on the wharves out of Whangarei.

No matter where in New Zealand one travels, a trip to the
wharf will reveal millions and millions of pine logs being exported overseas, in
the main to South East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea, but the wharves
at Whangarei have more timber than any other wharf in New Zealand. Readers in
that area should get in their car and go out and have a look and use this as a
beginning point to testify our Lord Jesus Christ and His coming again.

The world is indeed becoming a strange place and we rejoice
that God has given us certain signs to let us know that we are on the right
track.

"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him
while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his
thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him.."