THEATRE ROYAL.

•m CARL HERTZ. After an absence of about five years Carl Hertz again made his appearance before a ■Christchurch audience at the Theatre Royal last evening, and met a hearty reception from a crowded house. The entertainment throughout is one of the best, .as well as the most amusing, that has been seen here for a long time. Mr Hertz's card tricks are simply marvels of dexterity, ,-and his disappearing canary, although seen hero before, is a wonderful performance. The "Noah's Ark, or After the Flood" illusion, in which he extracts from an .apparently empty ark a number of live . animals, was highly sensational ; bnt his most marvellous illusion is that in whicli Mdlle. D'Alton is seen standing in front of a plate-glass mirror, and is made to vanish and to reappear in the body of the theatre. For this, as for most of his other items, Mr Hertz was greeted with hearty rounds of applause. Perhaps, however, the feature of the evening from an amusement point of view was the cmematographe, in which some thirteen pictures were introduced. Th c most beautiful from an artistic point of view was that of a sea cave, in which the angry waves breaking against the rocks were almost real enough to be henrd. Loic Fuller's serpentine dance, with the coloured lights thrown on to the drapery, was extremely pretty, and the jßois do Boulogne," with its moving crowd, ,< lid the Epsom Racecourse, with the Prince ut' Wales's colt Persimmon winning the { 'frby. wove admirably reproduco-.1. Many of the remaining scenes were immensely .-amusing, and provoked roars o£ laughter, iifulie. d'Alton, who assists Mr Hertz with his illusions, contributed some ballads in a . phasing manner, and earned an encore. The performance is entirely free from vulgarity, and Mr Herta is vety enter- ' • taining with the " patter " with which he intersperses his various feats. Those who cau enjoy a really good evening's entertainment should not miss this opportunity of seeing a programme which is both amusing and instructive. The same programme wil be repeated this evening. On Saturday afternoon thero will bo a matinee lor the convenience of persons from the country and children.