202 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
dairying and pastoral industries, are probably superior 
to those in the long-settled districts of the South. But 
for present purposes we are concerned only with con- 
ditions in the wheat producing area. 
A fourth cause of the deficiency in the supply of 
agricultural labourers—and this has special reference 
to the wheat industry—is the difficulty married country 
workers meet in finding suitable housing accommodation, 
and the lower standard of living in the country compared 
with that in the town. This difficulty was frequently 
referred to in the evidence given before the Cost of 
Living Commission, and many witnesses stated that this 
was the chief reason why workers migrated to the town. 
Coupled with the scarcity of good house room for country 
workers is a group of other influences tending to lower 
the standard of living in the country. The opportunities 
for social intercourse, the variety of amusements, the 
manifold means of recreation and other social advantages 
which town life offers, are conspicuously absent in the 
case of the rural worker. Greater than these dis- 
advantages is the absolute lack of attractions which the 
country offers to the wives of ordinary farm labourers 
on almost all sides. In many cases the only way in which 
a married man may get employment on a farm is by 
taking a situation where his wife must be prepared to 
take up the position of housekeeper to all hands on the 
farm, be there only one extra worker or any number up 
to seven or eight. The town worker is generally able to 
give his wife the position in a quiet home which she 
should rightly have, judged by any standard, be it from 
the individual’s point of view, that of the community, 
or that of the whole State. But such is not always the 
case with the rural worker. It is true that there are a 
relatively small number of positions ideally suitable for 
married workers in the country, but very often in these 
the work of the wife is no less than that of her husband. 
