Memorial service for Dame Eva .sx DAME Eva Turner was brought up in Hollins Road , Oldham , though when she was eight her parents moved to Bristol .sx I lived in a house opposite to hers and was always told of her phenomenal voice and rock solid technique , of her Scala debut when English singers were not sought after on the Continent , and of her glittering international career .sx When I went to study in London I saw her at Covent Garden on my first visit there in 1961 .sx In one of the intervals in 'Aida' she presented a plaque to the great Italian tenor , Giovanni Martinelli , to celebrate his debut at Covent Garden 50 years earlier .sx In later years I got to know her and saw her many times in the audience at Covent Garden .sx When I become responsible for concerts a Gray's Inn I invited her to give a talk .sx She could be heard in every corner of the Elizabethan Hall .sx The Old Bailey judge who gave the vote of thanks said that her voice production was a lesson to every barrister and judge present .sx I went to the great birthday performance given for her at Covent garden when she was 90 .sx On Tuesday , February 5 this year , I was part of the huge congregation for the service in her memory at Westminster Abbey .sx What an uplifting occasion it was , celebrating a fulfilled and happy life which gave pleasure to so many .sx The hymns were 'The Lord's My Shepherd' , 'Fight the good Fight' and 'Jerusalem' .sx Sir Geraint Evans read from Mozart's 1787 letter to his dying father , and the Duke of Kent read the passage from Corinthians beginning , " Now is Christ risen " .sx Royal Academy students played 'Chrysanthemums' , by Puccini , and the Royal Navy College Music wind ensemble played part of M Serenade No .sx 10. Elizabeth's greetings from 'Tannhauser' and the Easter Hymn from 'Cavalleria Rusticana' were sung by Dame Gwyneth Jones .sx Part of Verdi's requiem was sung by Dennis O'Neill and the Covent garden chorus sang 'Va parsiero' .sx Sir John Tooley , General Director of the Royal Opera House , 1970-88 , gave the address .sx He spoke of Dame Eva's pride in being a Lancashire lass , and of her typically Lancashire qualities - warmth , determination , thrift and patriotism , and above all her probity .sx When auditioned by Toscanini and offered an instant contract for La Scala , she said she could not go to Italy for some months , as she had given her word to sing with the English Carl Rosa Company .sx Nor would she change her name though she was told English singers would do better if they adopted Italian names .sx Towards the end of the service we heard a recording of Dame Eva talking in 1988 about her life , ending " I am now in my 97th year and I send you all my loving greetings .sx Bless you " .sx Then there rang out her rendering of the aria she made her own , 'In questa , reggia' from 'Turandot' .sx The glorious voice filled the beauty of the abbey .sx A hymn and a prayer later and the great congregation began to file out into a cold grey London afternoon .sx Among them I noticed the Earl and Countess of Harewood , the Lord Hoosen QC , Lord Goodman , Jeremy Isaacs , Director of the Royal Opera House , Richard Baker , Bernard Levin and Heather Harper .sx Eva Turner never forgot she came from Oldham and always spoke warmly of it .sx Few Oldhamers can have brought such credit to the town or have been so universally loved and admired .sx MARGARET CHADDERTON , .sx Gray's Inn , .sx Treasury Office , .sx South Square , .sx London .sx Single-tax theory on rating system .sx THERE has been much discussion recently about equitable alternatives to local rates .sx Some of your readers may be able to correct me , if my memory going back 60 years has become clouded .sx About a hundred years ago , an American economist , Henry George , founded a single-tax movement , based on the taxation of land values .sx His book , 'Progress and Poverty' brought him a substantial fortune , which he left to fund Schools of Economic Science to propagate his views .sx His basic thesis was that the value of land increased without any effort on the part of the owner , in the natural course of increasing demand and the growth of society .sx He said that substantial landowners made a substantial unearned increment thereby .sx He asserted that a single tax on this amount could cover all government expenditure .sx I presume that , were he alive today , he would have included council expenditure .sx He said that the identification of " economic rent " would vary from the difficult to the impossible .sx One of the problems he postulated was that the question of economic rent could concern many matters other than land values .sx In this respect , money raised from the taxation of land values would need to be supplemented by taxing transfer earnings - or might have to be administered to avoid taxing such earnings .sx I remember well his much quoted example of opera singers .sx They are fixed supply , but faced by rising demand .sx As society becomes more prosperous , the economic rent for opera singers rises , and , in justice , their rising value ( i.e. economic rent ) should also be taxed .sx It may well be that such devices as land development and capital gains taxes , as well as graduate levels of taxation may cope with the dilemma that governmental and council spending have increased to the degree that economic rentals are not longer a feasible basis for taxation .sx As late as the 1960s his schools of economic science flourished in many countries , and perhaps there are still some left in this country .sx There must be some of your readers who remember how popular Henry George's work was before the war , as well as those better able than I to comment upon them .sx As I recall it , George's book was a substantial one , and , despite this , remains the best-selling economic text book ever published .sx ALBERT M. HARRISON , .sx St. Anne's Crescent , .sx Grasscroft .sx THANK you to the anti-poll tax campaigners everywhere for their sheer determined efforts and protests over the unfair tax imposed on the people by a Government which would not have made any effort whatsoever to change the tax except for the protesters bringing to their notice that the tax was so unpopular .sx I also believe that any Labour councillors who supported the campaigners should not be expelled for their beliefs but made prospective leaders of their councils .sx A. VOTER .sx I KNOW the poll tax is in turmoil at the moment , but reading about it made my blood boil .sx Why should folks be charged an extra pounds25 to cover for the non-payers ?sx it is like a criminal going to court , being fined and having a whip-round from the public gallery to pay because he cannot afford it .sx It is not fair .sx Mrs. A.M. DAVIES , .sx Onchan Avenue , .sx Oldham .sx COULD I prevail upon the anti-poll tax leaders in Oldham to tell us if they feel that they should make any contribution to local government services , and if so how ?sx WONDERING .sx WHEN I retired in 1975 , the rates and water rate of my small domicile amounted to pounds82-odd and the pension for a single person was pounds16 odd .sx About five weeks pension paid these charges .sx This year they amount to pounds508 , the pension is pounds52 - about ten weeks' pension is needed .sx I calculate that if this trend continues , by the time I reach 110 these charges will absorb 40 weeks' pension and I shall be left with 12 weeks pensions to pay for 12 months' food , fuel , electricity , telephone , the odd bottle of Southern Comfort and holidays on the Costa del Sol .sx W. HURST , .sx Belgrave Road , .sx Oldham .sx Oldham splodgings .sx THE suggestion that Royton should be demolished for the delight of the yuppie mugwumps of Oldham will alarm many Roytoners .sx Similar notions have spread through the Civic Centre like the Black Death spread through Bulgaria .sx Considering that Royton never gets more than two day's notice of splodgings from Oldham , there could be many fatalities .sx But Royton was here when Oldham was nobbut sic !sx two wigwams and a saloon , and we , the true sons of Aethelfrith , whose kin goes back to Cerdic , shall still be here when Oldham has shrivelled up small enough to fit into one of its jackboots .sx All our people forced to live in Oldham shall come home to a green , working-class Royton again .sx We shall have a Tory council to repair our houses after the first complaint .sx There will be a 50-year waiting-list for outsiders wishing to move in .sx They told us the poll tax would restore local democracy .sx But just because the poll tax is on its way out now does not mean we will be lumbered with Oldham for ever .sx Yuppies are only slaves to the wind .sx A people with roots can be sure there will come a time when we can walk our dogs on the rubble of Oldham .sx ANGLO-SAXON .sx International hypocrisy .sx YOUR correspondent , Mr T. Carey ( April 9 ) , unable to dispute my indictment of the United States and Britain of sheer hypocrisy as the prime coalition leaders responsible for the mass civilian slaughter in Iraq - accepting pounds135 million from a fascist regime in South Korea , underpinned by 143,000 American Troops - carps at my totally " disparate facts " to provide the case .sx There are no disparate essentially different ( Oxford English Dictionary ) - facts in the context of international events in which the Gulf apocalypse is but one - and long-predicted - result of the capitalist West's espousal of fascist military dictatorships ( Turkey ) and feudal dictatorships ( all the Gulf states , excluding Iran , since the American CIA-planted shah was deposed in 1979 , and Yemen , which voted with Cuba against Resolution 678 , which led to the Gulf slaughter .sx And then there was the destabilising of such anticapitalist states as Chile , Cuba , Nicaragua , Vietnam , Cambodia , Afghanistan etc. , and replacement , as in El Salvador , Chile , Guatemala , and Argentina under Galtieri and also Grenada , Panama , Dominica , Haiti , and , elsewhere , Indonesia , by mainly United States military-fascist surrogates .sx I am aware that not all the above targets have yet succumbed to the economic , financial , diplomatic and military pressures exerted by the United States , with Britain in the van of supporters , if now less stridently than under Margaret Thatcher , but I trust I have met Mr Carey's request to name only " one of the scores of regimes " which I mentioned .sx Only my concern that a full page of the Chronicle would be required to delve fully into a subject requiring a mega-book rather than a letter to the editor , prompts me to curtail even my own memory on the subject .sx That your correspondent is as uniformed on the widespread and deeply rooted American racism as he is on the international issues which led to the Gulf inferno , is shown by his presentation of a single black man , Gen Colin Powell , Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff , as negating the penultimate sentence of my letter .sx That is Western racism in general and the United States in particular when the very individual Mr Carey has named has stated bluntly :sx " I never saw racism as a problem for blacks - it was a white problem .sx " .sx At the risk of appearing immodest , I think that your correspondent's own problem is similar to the critic encountered by Hazlitt , who said that he could not understand a certain writer .sx " He strides so far in front of you that he disappears into the distance .sx " .sx As for Mr Carey's third point , Saddam Hussein's initial savagery in Kuwait is not in question ; it is the much vaster savagery inflicted on Iraqi civilians by the coalition forces in allegedly avenging Hussein's victims which is the reality ignored by Mr Carey .sx S.H. PIERCE , .sx Roman Road , .sx Royton .sx A soft touch .sx ARE the people of Oldham a soft touch ?sx I have visited the new Oldham indoor market on numerous occasions .sx At the main entrance people are met by an able-bodied young-looking man sitting there looking well fed , not nearing tattered clothes and definitely not looking destitute .sx He holds a card which reads " Homeless and hungry .sx Please help " .sx Looking in his collecting receptacle I saw quite a good sum of money .sx I am told he sits there every day .sx