The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1922-01-24
INVESTMENT, NOT GIFT

On the first page of this paper appears the open letter of Frank
f. Baldwin, president of the Maui County Fair and Racing Asso-
citation, announcing the proposed $4,000 bond issue of the Asso-
citation. His letter is brief, concise, and gives all the necessary de
tails, shows the security offered to be ample, the return in interest
and touches on the point that the Association and It's purposes 1orm
a community enterprise and as such are entitled to the full support
of the Maui community.
President Baldwin's letter says that the plant of the Associa-
ton is valued at close to 100000 while the proposed bond issue is
only a fourth of that amount. The interest return will be six per
cent. Certainly the security is three to four times the amount OF
the loan that will be secured and the return is commensurate. Els
pecially is the latter fact clear at a time when securities that have
for years been considered gilt edged have suspended the payment
OF dividends. Sugar companies Will come back TO ther own III que
time and once more pay substantial dividends but at present are
unproductive, while the bonds that are to be offered will bear and
pay interest from the date of their issue.
So it san investment that is being offered to Maui, not a re-
quest for contributions or donations, a business proposal aside from
any and all sentiment that attaches to it..
AS a matter of fact, the Maui County Fair and Racing Associa-i
ton and its properties are worth a great deal more to Maui than
100000 invested in its holdings. Their value a IS community assets
would be difficult to compute but they have a distinct cash value
to every business house, large or small, are a revenue producer to
such concerns, as well as their value socially. They are as much
a county possession as if the title to them was in the county govern
ment for they r. a trust for the people of the county, for all of
the people, irrespective of race, creed or class.
No other county in the Territory has such a public playground
as has Maui in the property that is to be bonded. No other county,
not even the Territory, offers such an annual educational and en-
tertainment institution as here. Every individual is directly better
for It's existence. 1t draws to a common center at Fair time and
6tbar snocial occasions residents Of all narts of the island and visit.
ors from outside. At such times it brings an added business to the
stores and other business enterprises of Central Maui. An investment
in its securities then is a business affair for each business house
and means to such investors more than the six percent return on
the money, for it means a continuance of the added trade that the
affairs of the Association have brought to Kahuui and to Waikiki.
Sihtll SOhNNiho WV II W N"DNlN 90 u Do'hhNo Go1Nh'Oh w
purchase one o + more of the bonds.
It is not as if the Association were seeking funds for further
extensions and expansions at this time, as if it were mourning a
new debt. The bonding of its property is merely for the purpose
of consolidating present debts, the issuance of a security for monies
that have been put into and are now a part of its plant. AS a sugar
company or pineapple packing concern might buy mill machinery
or packing house equipment and then issue bonds on all of its pro-
perty instead of having an Indebtedness to the concerns from which
the machinery has been purchased, so the Association is to issue
bonds with all of its property as security for expenditures for only
a part Of its plant.
Reports received at the annual meeting of the Association go
to show that the Association has reached a stage where it can pay its
own way, meet the interest on the bonds and continue to grow and
improve from the revenues which the grounds and buildings can be
made to produce; from the annual fair, races and other affairs held
in the grounds, and, as already said, those returns do not include
the increased business which they bring to this part of Maui.
From the sentimental viewpoint, each individual should ask
himself or herself what they are worth to the community as a whole,
and what that means to the individual. The answer will be sure
to be that it is an enterprise worth whole hearted support, most
especially when no chances of loss are entaied and when an ade-
quate return on the investment is assured. 3
That Maui has such a splendid property is due to a large extent
to the generous support the project has always received from the
sugar industry, especially in the heyday of that industrys pros
perity and to an even larger extent to the constant and energetic
effort of individual citizens and the Maui spirit which ever goes to
spell success. The proposed bond issue is just one more call for a
manifestation Of that spirit. .