158 SPORT IN ASIA AND AFRICA 



quality can be gathered free of duty at the lakes 

 in Tibet on the border of Ladakh, and no duty 

 was imposed by the Darbar on this salt when 

 imported into Kashmir. The cost of its trans- 

 portation on pack-animals by hill- roads was, 

 however, so great that the highly taxed Punjab 

 salt could apparently be sold in Kashmir at a 

 lower price. 



Along the low hills in Jammu Punjab rock- 

 salt was on sale at i6 lbs. for the rupee, and in the 

 British villages in the Gurdaspur district, a few 

 miles away, the price was 30 lbs. for the rupee. 

 The people, although I was the Salt Commissioner, 

 made no complaint to me about the high price 

 of salt, although they complained bitterly about 

 an increase which had recently been made in their 

 land revenue assessment. 



I commend this fact to the consideration of 

 the doctrinaire politicians who talk glibly about 

 being no party to the taxation of a necessity of 

 life. A salt- tax in an Oriental country, in so 

 far as it represents the appropriation by the 

 Government of the excess profit of the producer, 

 the transporter, and the vendor, is a very good 

 tax. An indirect tax is always more popular in 

 the East than a direct tax, and by good and 

 intelligent administration a large revenue can 

 be obtained from salt without any increase, and 

 even in places with a positive decrease, of the 

 price of it to the people. The officers in charge 

 of the salt administration should devote their 

 attention to questions of production, transporta- 

 tion, and distribution; as the preventive work 

 of the Department is of comparatively little 



