LOCAL TAXES 109 



greatest industry of the nation as a whole, 

 and the most important on social and 

 economic grounds. 



If it can no longer claim special favour, at 

 least it may claim freedom from exceptional 

 burdens. 



And finally, we must remember that taxes 

 affect not only distribution but production. 

 You may disguise the burdens on an industry 

 so much that they cannot be measured, but 

 that does not lessen the real weight. And 

 other things being the same, to tax an 

 industry is to depress it. Taxation may be 

 a minor cause of agricultural depression as 

 compared with the course of prices and foreign 

 competition, but when profit is declining, 

 and losses of capital are being incurred, 

 taxation may, in many cases, be the pro- 

 verbial last straw ; and in any reorganisation 

 of the system of local finance, agriculture 

 ought to receive favourable consideration. 



