The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-05-22
About Foreign Capital.

Mr.. HEEHaN 4. WIDLgAN~ publishe- n card in
the last Ga=ete, lauding the quality OF the sugar
manufactured on the Waihee Plantation. the com
tcntelness Of tile laJOrers employed On it, in
Guiding the smallest boy who runs after the
c%ittle,' and boasts that no e foreign capital If
employed IL running the establishment. The card
l. evidently the composition Of his cnterprising
PARTNER, Mr.. G.. G. Harris. who. as usual, plays
the part Of tic monkey with the chestnuts, and
does not ign hi, name.
Nothing that we said last week called for any
Iarading Of the liabilities Of this plantation be-
fore the public: much less did we give the idea,
which the writer appears TO labor under. that
there i anything offensive or Llameahle in the
employment Of foreign capital, even il it. whole
debt consisted Of such. On the other land, we
hold that foreign capital Is Of the greatest benefit
to the country, that nearly all our Improvements
are TO be attributed to it, and the more we have
Of it the better.
Now all the creditors Of the Waihee Plantation
know very well that at or about the time Of its
purchase by the present proprictors, there was Il
second mortgage for fifty thousand dollars adj
yanced To it by the san Francisco Refinery to
carry it ON; and when we wrote we supposed
that a portion of that still remained unsettled,
and Of course that interest was paid ON it; but
we are informed that it has been settled BY the
payment of u small percentage Oh the dollar. If
50, all the better for the proprictors. But these
details and those in the card, are all foreign TO
our argument, which WAS to show The GdraHtGgc
II not absolute necessity If employing Joregn
capital m carrying on cur internal enterprises,
whether they be steam or sugar. And when We
asked. rs we did last week
-I- IL ANY worse fr ~ o. allow - foreign capital" To supply
fr III general hiieiit ai the codutry. ihan il Is Tor :. foreign
capital" 70 furnish the way- and means fr carrying on the
b,rrpWed foreign caIiiai"-
we designed t. make an illustration which
the Minister. being himself personally interested
in, and knowing that The plantation had received
the benefit Of thc foreign capital advanced to it
~ above, would acknowledge the force of.
Whether just at this moment it l. indebted TO
foreign capital OF not is quite immatcrial - far as
concerns our argument. IL has bean iHdebfed 10
JoTiga capital quite recently, and Is supposed TO
have received some advantage from it. This is
sufficient To illustrate what We Lad in view. which
was the advantage Of introducing more foreign
capital.
We cansec no greater objection to paying inter
est on foreign capital in the shape ola steamer than
in a sugar mill. a schooner, or anything else that
is needed to dcvelope the industry of the coun-
try. And If the prOprictors Of the Waihce Plan
tation, in publishing their card, labor under any
idea Of it, being n heinous thing to Iay interest
ON foreign capital, it places them III a most I'M
favorable IL not ridiculous light.
II il sand that the thrifty Germans own one
thousand millions, or two-iiths, of the American
national debt; in other words they furnished
that amount Of capital required to preserve the
Union intact aud to maintain its credit. The
British people also own four hundred millions of
American railroad and State debts; in other
build and carry ON railroads and internal State
improvements. Certainly, in both these in
stances, foreign capital has been and still is of
great benefit to Americans.
10 in our ease, we nccd foreign capital, not to
assume our national debt. hut 80 build III more
mills. to run our steamboats,, and if 10y furnish
ing such capital the resources and products Of
the country are increased, and our trade and
travel facilitated, we cannot help being benefited
thereby. Therefore, let no man, (planter or
other) he ashamed to borrow foreign capital or
own that lie pays interest on it. Get all you
can, OH the best terms, even If at a discount of
fifty cents OH the dollar, and don't publish state
mcnts of now much YOU owe or do not owe, thus
making yourselves the laughing stock Of the
town.