GYMKHANA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 32, 7 February 1914, Page 5

GYMKHANA.

A correspondent, apparently of a humorous turn of mind, writes as follows :—As many of your readers aro laboring under a misapprehension as :o the meaning of the word Gymkhana, let me explain its derivation: The word is a Hindu one, from Gym "to enjoy" and Khana ''thoroughly." It has been given to us by a tribe in. the Northern Territory of India, and was used by them to explain the results they obtained when they Were engaged in the festive pastime of potting at the British troops. "Gymkhana," they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The word was not relished in the same sense by the British targets. The Nihilists use the same word to describe the sport of throwing bombs at the Czar, and likewise the word does not carry the same meaning to the Autocrat of all the Russians. To describe the übiquity of the word, it may be said that the writer and Tommy Longshot when travelling round the world, stopped at Malay to visit a dog show, and to their surprise the Malayans used the same word when describing t-ne aport of head hunting. The people of Taranaki do not look upon the word in the same light as the savages. They are used to the more peaceful scenes that are enacted on the Stratford show grounds at the A. and P. Association's Gymkhana. The pleasun- derived is one of extreme felicitation, and the successful competitor will feel the same exultation when he carries off a prize as the Nihilist does when he bomb;-: a Czar, or the Malayan when he lifts a head. There is an enjoyable aspect about a Gymkhana, and it is not concealed under the flaps of Tommy Longshot's sou'wester, and to most patrons this aspect will speedily establish itself on next Easter Monday.