Wi Parata v Bishop of Wellington

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Wi Parata v Bishop of Wellington was an 1877 Supreme Court case on the status of native title to land in New Zealand. The court held that native title—ownership of land by Māori prior to 1840—could not be addressed by the municipal courts. The ruling itself explicitly set precedent for ignoring the Treaty of Waitangi, regarding it a "simple nullity" for domestic law. A landmark ruling, Wi Parata would allow for Crown grants to alienate Māori from their land in the following decades.

In 1877, Wi Parata, a wealthy Māori farmer and member of the Executive Council, described by the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography as having been "an astute politician and skilled orator and debater", took Octavius Hadfield, the Bishop of Wellington, to the Supreme Court (renamed in 1980 to the High Court), over a breach of oral contract between the Anglican Church and the Ngāti Toa, and a breach of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Ngāti Toa had provided land to the church in 1848 in exchange for a promise that a school for young Ngāti Toa people would be built by the church. However no school was built, and in 1850 the church obtained a Crown grant to the land, without the consent of the iwi. The case was a failure for Parata – Chief Justice James Prendergast ruled that the Treaty of Waitangi was a "simple nullity", having been signed by "primitive barbarians". Prendergast regarded the treaty insignificant to domestic law.

The ruling had far-reaching consequences, as it was invoked as precedent during subsequent claims brought for breaches of the treaty, well into the twentieth century.

Notes

Until 1980, the Supreme Court of New Zealand was the name used for what is now the High Court of New Zealand.

References

"The three precedents of Wi Parata", 2004, Canterbury Law Review
Morris, Grant (2004). "James Prendergast and the Treaty of Waitangi: Judicial Attitudes to the Treaty During the Latter Half of the Nineteenth Century". Victoria University of Wellington Law Review. 35 (1): 117. doi:10.26686/vuwlr.v35i1.5634.
Untangling the Foreshore

v t e Treaty of Waitangi
Parties and partners	The British Crown Rangatira
Notable signatories	Tāmati Wāka Nene William Hobson Hōne Heke Te Rauparaha
Important figures and groups	Hōne Heke Te Rauparaha Tāmati Wāka Nene Queen Victoria James Busby Henry Williams
Important groups	New Zealand Company Colonial Office Māori protest movement Waitangi Tribunal Office of Treaty Settlements
Terminology	Tino rangatiratanga Kāwanatanga Mana motuhake Taonga Sovereignty
Legal	New Zealand Day Act Treaty of Waitangi Act Waitangi Day Acts (1960 and 1976) Treaty of Waitangi claims and settlements Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Wi Parata v Bishop of Wellington R v Symonds New Zealand Maori Council v Attorney-General Ngati Apa v Attorney-General Treaty Principles Bill
Commemoration	Waitangi Day Waitangi, Northland Treaty House
Protest	Māori land march Waitangi dildo incident

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