Austin's Hawaiian weekly. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1899-190?, 1899-09-23


Since July lst. the condition of the stock
market has been so bad as.
The Business almost. to be cause for
Situation alarm. Men who had here
tofore never known, at
least in recent years. what it is to be short of
money have been in straights for cash
with any amount of securities in their possess
ion. The immediate cause for this state of
affairs was the overstocking the market with
new and glittering sugar enterprises, incident
upon the optimistic hopes created by the con-
summation of annexation to the United States.
while the money limited in volume to the
requirements of business prior to annexation.
The slump in the price of sugar stock.
which began about the twenty-tifth of une.
was as inevitable as ii is that the sun rises and
sets. 1t is not remarkable that the reduction
in values set in all along the line. aud shares
IN sugar estates paying 50 to so per cent.
dividends which had been considered Gilt
edged at the high figures a, which they were
held, dropped several points within short
time. AS the banks began to refuse loans on
speculative stocks It became necessary for
holders to sacrifice their gilt-edged investment
stocks to raise money to pay the assessments
on their speculative holdings.
The opening of the doors for business of
the First National Bank of Hawaii last week
Will have a salutory effect upon the money
market. and will help to save many of our
most enterprisine men from serious losses or
possible rum. But the good work should not
stop here, every effort should be made To
induce the promotion of other banking enter
Nises. Banking is perhaps the only branch
OF industry here that is not now equal to
qurements of local business. The field should
attract the attention of prominent banking
concerns in Chicago. New York and Lon
don. that now maintain most lucrative agencies
in California.
The situation is certainly not to be Won
dered at when it is remembered that sugar
corporations alone. with an aggregate capital
OF $4,000. 900 to S5o.ooo.ooo were promoted
and the stocks offered to the public between
the first of the year and middle OF June This
is IA strain that would have taxed the resources
OF IA metropolitan city on the mainland four
times the size of Honolulu. SO great was the
excitement over the stock boom that the new
companies were subscribed five to twenty
times over, and in case of the Mcbride
scheme it reported to have been subscribed
sixty times This is of course an unnatural
state of business, and had the first payment
down and subsequent assessments been made
larger. it would have been wholesome for the
community in restraining the temptation to
speculate on too small capital.
Whatever Mr.. Edward Politz has to say
concerning Hawaiian tnan-
ro'tz on the Cial matters must necessarily
Situation. be of interest. His opinion
not only carries weight be-
cause of his remarkable business abilities, but
he makes a visit to Honolulu, his object is to
recapitulate the financial situation relative to
the vast interests his firm has here and the
still larger Hawaiian interests they are respon-
sibe for to others.
When asked what remedy he could suggest