leading hotels, by a Cabinet Minister. The Minister happened to order a mixed grill and Pineha, always ready to try anything once, followed suit. Like all men of fundamentally simple tastes Pineha was capable of great enthusiasm for simple things. He developed such an enthusiasm for a mixed grill. When, later in the course of one of the Commission's meetings, there appeared to be a deadlock over which of several courses should be pursued Pineha used the mixed grill as an example and a simile. ‘Each of the courses which have been suggested,’ he said, ‘is a course of merit. But, unfortunately, each course contains something which will act against its success. Let us be like that pakeha cook at the hotel and, taking the choicest bits of each course, combine them to a mixed grill which will give us the best features of each course without a surfeit of any.’ Thereupon he analysed the various suggestions, pointing out their strengths and their weaknesses and, without difficulty, persuaded his fellow Commissioner to adopt what was afterwards known as his ‘mixed grill’ policy. That it proved a success has no bearing on this story other than the fact that it made Pineha even more a devotee of the mixed grill than before. Pineha was too wise in his generation to try to make his mokopuna introduce the new delicacy into her limited cuisine. He continued to eat, with apparent relish and without complaint, the food she put in front of him. It so happened that on his next visit to the provincial centre to attend the Education Board meeting, Pineha encountered Heni Tuatope just outside his hotel. Heni was the chef and Pineha was tempted to introduce the subject of mixed grills, but conversation took a turn in a different direction. ‘Tena koe, Heni.’ ‘Kia ora, Pineha.’ ‘Kei te aha koe?’ ‘Kei te pai, kei te pai.’ Salutations were barely over when the woman laid her massive hand on his arm. ‘Heh Pineha, you fellows fix those scholarships today, eh?’ Pineha assented. ‘My boy Hoera, he go for that scholarship, eh! He the good boy, my Hoera.’ Pineha made non-commital sounds and prepared to go on his way. Heni's huge hand detained him. ‘Heh, Pineha, good thing if that Maori boy get the scholarship, eh? Too many times pakeha boy get that scholarship. My boy, Hoera, get it, good thing for the Maori people, eh!’ ‘Now look, Heni,’ Pineha explained. ‘Scholarships are recommended by teachers. The Board only confirms them. If Hoera's been recommended he'll get it. If he hasn't he won't. There's nothing I can do about it.’ Heni looked at him in patent unbelief. Her massive frame quivered in indignation and affront. ‘Upoko kohua, Ngati, Manere,’ she shot at him, and turning on an indignant heel hurried into the hotel. At lunchtime that day Pineha ordered a mixed grill. ‘I'm sorry,’ the waitress said, ‘it isn't on the menu.’ ‘I know,’ Pineha agreed. ‘But ask Heni to cook me one.’ Heni was a good cook. She was normally a reasonably obliging chef, but she was a woman of determination and she was out of friends with Pineha. ‘Kahore,’ she said when the waitress bore Pineha's request, shaking her head to emphasize the negative. ‘Mixed grill she no on the menu. No mixed grill.’ Pineha shook his head sadly when the message was brought to him but made no protest and ordered a steak. ‘Really Heni,’ said the waitress to the chef. ‘It wouldn't have hurt you to give the old gent his mixed grill. You've got everything cooking, it's only a question of putting a bit of each on the one plate …’ ‘You mind you’ tables,’ Heni retorted. ‘I mind my cooking, eh!’ ‘But,’ the waitress protested, ‘he's a big chief …’ Heni shook her head as an assertation of independence. ‘He may be big rangatira on his own marae, he just a taurekareka in my kitchen.’ Pineha, rightly or wrongly, put down the refusal to his having refused to use his influence in the matter of Hoera's scholarship. Next mealtime he again ordered a mixed grill. Again it was refused. Now though Pineha was a mild and temperate man he was capable of great determination. He wouldn't have been the great man he really was without it. He wasted no time in argument. He set about getting his own way in another manner. First he ordered a grilled kidney as an entree.