STATE PURCHASE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR , —I have read with very much interest and approval your able article on State Purchase of the Liquor Trade, and as a valuer and stocktaker to the Trade for many years I fully endorse your opinion that there will never be a more favourable opportunity for taking the Trade over. Regarding the subject from a " Temperance " point of view, some thirty or forty thousand houses could be closed at once—these in back streets, slums, and the numerous superfluous ones in country towns, &e. Managers under the State would have no object in pressing the sale of drink or in evading any of the numerous and harassing restrictions, and probably the penalties for drunkenness and disorderly conduct would be made much heavier (which should have been done long ago). Prices and strengths of spirits would be uniform, and last, but not least, all articles sold would be of
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