UNCLAIMED DIVIDENDS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 July 1932, Page 4

UNCLAIMED DIVIDENDS

WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM. Tile method of disposal of the money represented by unclaimed dividends from the totalizator was explained recently by- Mr. W. H. Macdougall, totalizator proprietor. The question was raised at the annual meeting of the. Canterbury Park Trotting Club. Mr. Macdougall said that most claims Were received when a protest-was lodged against the running of one of the placed horses. Before waiting to see whether there jvas a protest many persons who held tickets on the third horso threw them away, and later .others picked them up and lodged claims for payment if the protest was upheld. .He then received claims from the original purchasers of the tickets, and also from those who had found the tickets. In one case there were eleven claimants for. dividends represented by four tickets. Where the number of the Window at which the ticket had been bought was stated, the ticket could be traced.

A great many claims had been settled and paid, and in cases where there were no claimants, or where the ownership could not be proved, the money was generally given by him to a. charitable organisation, such as the Nurse Maude Association or the Salvation Army..’ Before doing so, said Mr. Macdougall, he always allowed a reasonable .time for the lodging of claims. There were cases where his losses, through faulty additions or overpayment from the totalieator, had amounted- to over £3OO for one meeting.'