The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-05-17
BEARING
OUR STOCKS

The difficulty in listing Hawaiian
! stocks in the New York market is ex-
planned by the frequent appearance OF
articles like the following in the New
| York Evening Post:
BY the sale of $40 shares of stock
. of the American Sugar Company, the
control of the property had just pass
ed from the promoters of the company
to a syndicate composed Of number OF
smaller holders of stock, together with
a few outside men, and the property
will now revert to cattle ranch, for
which purpose it was used for many
years before the attempt to develop a
sugar plantation on it. The stock sold
belonging to the corporation of G.
Brewer & Company, which promoted
and foated the American Sugar Com
pany.
The property consists of $4,000 acres
of fee simple land and $4,000 acres of
leased land, together with about $4,000
sheep and $4,000 cattle. The land is
situated on the southern side of the is
land of Molokai. 1t formerly belonged
to Mrs. Bernice Pauahi Bishop, and
was a part of the vast landed property
which descended to her from Kameha-
meha the Great. The property was
bought from the estate of Mrs. Bishop
three years ago for something over a
quarter of a million dollars. Brewer &
Company organized the American Sug-
ar Company, with capitalization of
$l,500,000 and invested heavily in it
themselves. Immense sums were spent
in vast mill plants and irrigation
works, and in artesian wells and in
other developments. The stock went up
to $177 and considerable blocks of 1t
were sold at $3.50.
But the artesian water, though
abundant, all proved too salt for irri-
eating purposes. Though there was
plenty of water in the mountains be-
longing to the estate. the cost of bring
ing 1t where it could be used was 30
great that the plantation could not be
made to pay. Accordingly the property
reverted to a cattle ranch. The effort
to make a sugar plantation cost the
entire amount of the capitalization and
about $4,000 more. The value of the
land for cattle ranch purposes, how
ever, makes the equity owned by the
American Sugar Company such that
the syndicate was willing to pay Brew
er & Company $l2 a share for their
$40 shares.
Maunalei plantation, on the Island Of
Lanai, has also been placed in the
hands of a receiver, This, one OF the
later attempts to carry on a sugar
plantation, has failed, because the pro-
moters were not able to interest enough
capital TO carry 1t through.
Many subscribers to the assessable
stock were unable or unwilling TO meet
the stock assessments levied to develop
the plantation. The court has just di-
rected the receiver to sue for all delin-
quent assessments. This order has
created considerable CONSERVATION, as
II is the first move OF the kind ever
made in the islands. In all other plan
tations and corporations delinquent
stock has been bought In by the cor
poration itself, and held as treasury
stock, and there have never been any
cases In which this could not be done
to the future advantage OF the persist
ent stockholders. Therefore the liabil-
ity OF stockholders for assessments OF
assessable stock IL 10 be tested for the
FIRST time In the Maunalei recelvershlSl
rases.-New York Evening Post