authority power to fix the number of licences and put them up to auction or to hand over the retail traffic altogether to a company formed for the purpose of carrying it on. The latter idea, which is the Gothenburg system, was taken from the example of Falun and Jönköping which had a few years ago voluntarily adopted the plan. The law of 1855 further gave rural districts the power of local veto. Four-fifths of the population live in rural districts, and the great majority of them immediately took advantage of the provision. The company system, on the other hand, was not applied by the towns until 1865, when Gothenburg adopted it. In Norway the course of events was very similar. There, too, distilling and spirit-drinking were practically universal in the early part of the century under the laws of 1816, but were checked by legislation a few years sooner than in Sweden. In 1845 a special licensing system was introduced, giving the local authority power to fix the number of licences, and in 1848 the small and domestic stills were stopped. The Gothenburg system was not adopted in Norway until 1871 and then with some modification. The essence of this method of conducting the retail traffic is that the element of private gain is eliminated. A monopoly is granted to a company consisting of a number of disinterested citizens of standing with a capital, and they manage the sale both for "on" and "off" consumption in the public interest. The profits, after payment of 5% on the capital, originally went in Sweden mainly to the municipality in relief of rates, in Norway to objects of public utility. The latter was considered preferable because it offers less temptation to make the profits as high as possible. Fault has, however, been found with both methods, and payment of profits to the state is now preferred. In 1894 a law was passed in Norway providing for the following distribution: 65% to the state, 20% to the company, and 15% to the municipality. In 1907 Sweden adopted a law in the same direction. The intention is to eliminate more completely the motive of gain from the traffic. In 1898 the net profits of the companies exceeded half a million sterling in Sweden and reached £117,500 in Norway. The company system had in 1910 had more than half a century's trial; it had gone through some vicissitudes and been subjected to much criticism, which was balanced by at least as much eulogy. It had held its own in Sweden, where 101 towns had adopted it in 1906. In Norway at the same date it was in force in 32 towns while 29 had adopted local veto, which was extended from the country districts, where it had previously been optional, to the towns by the law of 1894.