GYMNASTIC CARNIVAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6935, 26 October 1900, Page 4

GYMNASTIC CARNIVAL.

The large audience which packed the Theatre Royal last night had every reason to be satisfied with, the entertainment provided by the members of the Christolnirch Physical Training School. Mr Tankard and ibis pupils had evidently spent a great deal of pains in preparing for their annual gymnastic carnival, and the display was highly creditable to them. Had the instructor wished, he could probably have secured better results, from a. show point of view, by curtailing his programme and selecting only the pick of his performers to appear in public. Miss Millice Jennings's display of club swinging, for instance, showed the proficiency jsvhich a pupil with perhaps more than, ordinary ability can attain under Mr Tankard's ' tuition. This young lady delighted the audience by her dexterity in handling clubs, and received the only recall of the evening, though- she contented herself with bowing her acknowledgments. In several of the other exhibition^ too, especially in the work on the parallel and horizontal bars, a few of the gymnasts showed marked superiority over the majority of the performers. Mr Tankard was quite right, however, in not confining his display to feats by the most skilled members of his gymnadum. He had close upon 300 performers engaged, and the public were thus able to form a good idea of benefits that are to bo derived from a course in physical culture. The show, exercises, which formed the bulk of last night's programme, are, of course, no real criterion of the value of the work done in a gymnasium, for they are only meant for display and not for the development of the body. But the wellexpanded chest?, the sturdy limbs, and the healthy faces of all the performers, both young and old, bore testimony to the beneficial results that the community derives from Mr Tankard's work. ; That he is a painstaking instructor was evident from the pi'ecision with which large numbers of very youne; athlete's went through intricate and prolonged exercises. A big squad of young boys Rave an exhibition of a number of dumb-bell exercises, keeping excellent time throughout, though they were hardly so perfect in the movements as the young ladies who went through the same set, while the men's class, with the exception of one performer, gave an almost faultless display with the dumb-bells. The grand parade, with which the evening opened,, the tableaux given by men, youths, boys and girls, and the spectacular pyramids built up with the aid of apparatus by men and youths, were excellent as show items, and relieved the displays of solid gymnastic work on such apparatus as the Roman lings, ropes, bars and horizontal, ladder. Several of the performers oh the apparatus were distinctly above the average, and should give a good account of themselves at the gymnastic contest in connection' with the Jubilee Exhibition, when they meet the Wellington a.thletes, of whom Mr Woods has led the public to expect so much. Members of the girls' class gave pretty displays of a musical running maze and of. wand exercises, the judicious use of the limelight adding to the effectiveness of the scenes. An item that created great amusement was entitled " monkeyology," which sufficiently^ explains its nahire. while a number of "Grecian gladiators " gave an exhibition of statuesque posing. A pleasing feature of the performance was the intense pleasure which the juvenile* showed dn going through their work, though this was only natural in a pastime that appeals so strongly to every healthy-minded nature. "The one fault that might, perhaps, be found with last night's display was its length. A large portion of the audience began to leave before it finished, and Mr Tankard would probably lose nothine by being a little less generous in the number of items. :