&amp;pound;16 1/2 million estimates for education . Cheshire make provision for increased numbers . in the next financial year Cheshire education committee proposes to spend &amp;pound;16,499,935 , an estimate which represents an increase of &amp;pound;1,265,710 over the estimated figure for 1960 . this was agreed at the last meeting of the committee when it was stated that the estimated income for the year was &amp;pound;1,459,020 . the difference between this and the expenditure has to be found from rates and taxes . commenting on the proposal , Dr J G Kellett , the county director of education , says that in formulating the estimates for 1961 , the committee has had to make provision , not only for maintaining and improving the standards in the 568 schools and colleges throughout the county , but also for the large increase in the number of pupils in primary and secondary schools , and students undertaking further education . the number of pupils on the roll of primary schools is at present 79,720 and the estimated number next year is 80,755 , an increase of 1,035 . this increase is brought about by the natural increase in the county &apos;s population and also by the continual migration of people into the county . Cheshire is attractive from the point of view of residence , and the development of industry within the county and in neighbouring areas means an ever-increasing influx of new population . added to this the total population is increased by overspill developments . smaller classes . however , despite the continuing high level of the primary school population in Cheshire , considerable progress continues to be made , as a result of new schools and additional classrooms , in the direction of the elimination of over-sized classes ( i.e classes with over 40 on roll ) . whereas in 1957 the percentage of such classes was 32.9 , at September , 1960 , the percentage had been reduced to 23.6 . this is the lowest figure of any year since 1949 and compares favourably with the year 1953 , when the percentage of over-sized classes was 43.2 . it is noteworthy that the percentage of classes with between 30 and 40 on roll rises steadily and now comprises 38.0 of all primary school classes . there is also a continued rise in the percentage of classes with under 30 on roll . in 1953 the percentage of these was 27.7 , but at present it is 38.4 . the percentage of classes with under 40 on roll grew from the figure of 56.8 in 1953 to 76.4 in 1960 . more at grammar schools . on the secondary side , the number of grammar school pupils will increase from 20,163 at present to 21,482 in 1961 . the increase is 1,319 pupils , which is the equivalent of two new grammar schools at over 600 pupils each . the number of secondary modern school pupils will remain at the high level of approximately 33,000 . this is due partly to the bulge which continues to pass through the secondary schools , but also , as in the case of primary schools , to the migration of population into the county and to the increasing number of pupils who are staying at secondary modern schools beyond the normal school-leaving age and in sixth-forms at grammar schools . an achievement . it is interesting to note that in a period when the county is faced with such large increases of primary and secondary school pupils , it has been possible to complete the replacement of all-age schools by new secondary schools , and to build new grammar schools , so that appropriate secondary education is available throughout the county for all pupils according to their age , ability and aptitude . this in itself is a noteworthy achievement in a county with such a wide variety of conditions - rural and urban , agricultural and industrial , and residential . also it should be noted that as well as the building of new grammar and secondary modern schools , good progress is being made with the improvement of facilities in existing grammar and secondary modern schools . in further education , provision is being made for new and improved technical colleges . major extensions are now in course of construction at the Carlett Park ( Eastham ) , and mid-Cheshire ( Hartford ) central Colleges of further education at a cost of &amp;pound;465,000 and &amp;pound;300,000 respectively . extensions . work is due to begin in February on a &amp;pound;260,000 extension at the north Cheshire College at Sale . planning permission has just been received for the building of a technical College at Hyde , and the estimated cost of this will be &amp;pound;398,500 , and a new College of further education at Crewe costing &amp;pound;600,000 is to be built by the Cheshire authority in 1961/62 . there is also a steady growth in the number of students at universities and technical colleges . in the past five years there has been an increase of nearly 20 per cent in the number of students attending Cheshire technical Colleges , and this increase will continue over the next five years as the new and enlarged colleges come to completion . it is interesting to note that , at the present time , the county education committee is making grants to 1,565 university students and it is anticipated that there will be approximately 50 additional students receiving grants in 1961/62 . this is reflected in increased grants to students and increased fees at colleges of further education outside Cheshire which some county students attend . in total some 2,940 students are receiving financial aid for their training in Universities , teachers &apos; training Colleges , technical Colleges and Schools of art and music . in conclusion it should be pointed out that , based on the net rate and grant-borne expenditure per thousand population , Cheshire &apos;s expenditure for all branches of education service ( including primary , secondary and special schools , further education , the training of teachers , medical inspection and treatment , provision of milk and meals , the transport of pupils and agricultural education ) is &amp;pound;12,893 as opposed to the average of all counties in England and Wales of &amp;pound;13,220 . A-I theme for Royalty play . forbidden flesh , the controversial play at the Royalty Theatre next week , is by punch-packing author Eugene Hamilton . his previous play , a girl called Sadie , packed the Royalty on visits by two different touring companies . his new play deals with the question of artificial insemination . the author raises the query as to whether a father will feel the same towards a child obtained by these means as to one normally conceived . his leading character finds himself about to become a father to two different children , one through artificial insemination . on the one hand is the wife trying to tie him down to a secure suburban marriage , and on the other is Eily , the wild Irish girl played with flashing eyes and a tongue like a whip-lash by dark-haired Sarah Travis , who is herself Irish . two points of interest to Cestrians . the play is set in Liverpool , where it takes place in the Irish quarter . and when it was first performed in Manchester , the Lord Mayor , who was invited to the premiere , made national news headlines by refusing to allow his 18-years-old daughter to attend . the play has since been banned in Eire because of its outspoken nature , although it has done capacity business in all the principal cities and towns of England , especially those with large Irish populations . at Chester it will be presented for adults only . it is easy to keep up with the Jones&apos;s in Sweden &apos;s Thingwall . news and advertiser reader Mr H Arnold , who received his news and advertiser spirit of Wirral calendar in Karlstad , Sweden , has written this article . turning over the spirit of Wirral calendar I see that the February picture is of Thingwall whose Viking name was Tingralla . it is snowbound . I am writing this from another place once named Tingralla - there are others in Europe - which is also snowbound , but here the comparison stops . in 1584 King Charles the ninth gave it a charter as a borough , after which it changed its name to Karlstad ( Charlestown ) . it became the seat of a bishop . like many other Swedish towns of wooden buildings huddled together , it was burnt down . it has since been re-planned with wide streets and boulevards , and more fire-resisting buildings . it has important industries based on the forests ( timber , pulp and paper ) and is a celebrated centre for engineering . seaborne trade . excepting for about two months in each year commencing about now it has a seaborne trade through Lake Varen and the Trollhattan Canal . ice put a stop to navigation last week , and traffic has to be routed by rail or road to and from ice-free ports such as Gottenburg , until the oncoming of spring . although there are papers in neighbouring towns not more than forty miles away , Karlstad , with a population of 40,000 , supports two morning daily papers , one conservative , the other socialist . they are by no means solely provincial . for example , yesterday &apos;s conservative paper discusses in its leading article the effect of the common market on Swedish agriculture , mentioning several times the views of Mr Woolley , the Cheshire farmer who is now chairman of the national farmers &apos; union . there is a good deal of interest in the advertising columns . a fortnight ago there were many acknowledgements under which one-inch single column entries were inserted by individual postmen and lorry drivers collecting milk for the creameries thanking publicly all those who had given them Christmas boxes . dog taxes became due on January 1st . the amount is fixed by local authorities and varies from place to place . hereabouts the standard seems to be the equal of 55 s per dog over three months old . official advertisements remind dog-owners that the charge will be doubled if it is not met by January 31st . other authorities offer rewards for the extermination of pests - 27 s 6 d for a fox and 55 s for a mink . these animals are very destructive to poultry . escapees from fur farms , they find abundant shelter in the forests . refuse in bags . there is no mystery about council , health , water , fishery or other authorities &apos; proceedings . the agenda for forthcoming meetings appear as paid advertisements . yesterday the council of a small local town gave notice in a six-inch column advertisement that household rubbish must in future be put into paper bags before being put into the garbage bins . it claimed that in summer this would reduce the stench of decaying matter and in winter would lighten and speed up the work of dustmen as they would not have to dig frozen refuse from inside the bins . in more than one town the collected refuse is burnt under boilers which supply hot water to houses , thus cutting out the need for individual heating plants . tax registers . folk interested in public affairs can learn a lot in Sweden . they can even learn that newsagents and booksellers sell annuals ( called taxation registers ) wherein everybody &apos;s assessable income within the area of the authority is shown . it may be difficult for people in Britain to know if they are keeping up with the Jones&apos;s . in Sweden they have only to look into the local taxation register to know whether or not they are keeping up with the Svenssons ( Swedish Jones&apos;s ) . from Dee to Dublin was so difficult . one of the most interesting features of local history is the way in which Wirral &apos;s Deeside villages came to be regarded over the centuries , as the main ports for the Irish trade , not only locally , but for England . the only rival was Holyhead , but many travellers preferred the longer sea voyage to the difficult travel in reaching the Anglesey port . except for the fact that Chester had been established at the head of the estuary , and when the river silted the Wirral villages were used as ports instead , it is probable that the estuary would never have gained any commerce . as a haven , a place for ships to shelter , the Dee shore of the peninsula was as an inhospitable place as it could possibly be . shelter from westerly winds was virtually non-existent , but the worst fault from a shipping point of view was that craft could sail down the channel and so to the open sea only when the wind came from the easterly quarter . 