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NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND.
245
lander's requirements in a wife may fitly be introduced. The New Zealand young man, as a rule, wants a wife who is able and ready to do all the housework, and so avoid the necessity for obtaining assistance, which is most expensive in the Colonies; moreover, one who can saddle and harness a horse, assist in the management of a farm, and, in short, make herself generally useful. It may be said that there is nothing remarkable about this, that such qualities are always held up for admiration in a woman, and that men of all countries are accustomed to seek for wives of the character described. To a certain extent
