AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 May 1927, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

{.Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.] TOTE REGULATIONS. SYDNEY, .May 111. AVith a view to popularising the totalisator, the revenue from which for some time has shown a decreasing tendency, the Government has I rained new regulations which will operate from the 23rd. The chief amendment is that whenever possible all dividends shall be calculated so ns assure that each investor on the placed horse will receive a return of not less than the unit of investment on which the totalisator is operated. This will ensure that ha. Iters of placed horses will at least receive their money back. Another amend meat deals with the number ol di\ idends in a race and provides there be two dividends of not less than lour and not more than seven starters, and three divdiends of eight or more starters. The ratio division for a three dividend race of the amount available for distribution is fixed at fitly per cent on the "first horse, thirty per cent for second, and twenty per cent for third. Ha tins for one and two dividend races remain unaltered. SYDNEY STORM DAMAGE. SYDNEY, April 28. Not a few owners of what «re termed “jerry-built” houses are sadder but wiser people in Sydney to-day. While there was hardly a root in the metropolis which did not leak under the pressure of the recent cyclonic storm, it was the “jerry-built” houses which are prettily finished off that suffered most. The storm was tne acid test of sound workmanship. Scamped worked told its tale eloquently. Not a few ownerse of houses found their roofs in adjoining gardens, their rooms saturated with water and their walls spreading and cracking under the weight of badly-constructed root's and *e jerrv-built” foundations. Alanv homes, especially bungalows, prettilydesigned and nicely finished off exteinallv, have proved had bargains. Not n few houses which are in the course of construction will have to be largely rebuilt, for brick walls which have not been blown down have been so saturated with water that they have become buckled. Sydney will not quickly forget the Easter storms that left so much devastation and ruin in their wake.