Wiremu Parata

{{short description|Māori chief and politician}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Honourable | name = Wiremu Te Kākākura Parata | honorific_suffix = | image = Wiremu Parata.jpg | caption = Wiremu Parata circa 1876 | order = Minister without portfolio | prime_minister = George Waterhouse<br>Sir William Fox<br>Sir Julius Vogel<br>Daniel Pollen | term_start = Dec 1872 | term_end = Feb 1876 | predecessor = | successor = | constituency_MP2 = Western Maori | parliament2 = New Zealand | majority2 =  | term_start2 = 1871 | term_end2 = 1875 | predecessor2 = Mete Kīngi Paetahi | successor2 = Hoani Nahe | birth_date = {{Circa}} 1830s | birth_place = Kapiti Island | death_date = 29 September 1906 | death_place = Waikanae | resting_place = Waikanae | resting_place_coordinates = | birth_name = | party = None | other_party =  | spouse = | partner =  | relations = Huria Matenga (sister-in-law)<br>Te Pēhi Kupe (great-uncle) | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = | cabinet = | committees = | portfolio = | signature = | website = | footnotes = | blank1 = Father | data1 = George Stubbs | blank2 = Mother | data2 = Metapere Waipunahau }} '''Wiremu Te Kākākura Parata''', also known as '''Wi Parata''' ({{circa}} 1830s – 29 September 1906) was a New Zealand politician of Māori and Pākehā descent. During the 1870s he was a member of the House of Representatives and a Minister of the Crown.

==Early years, and farming==

Parata was the son of Metapere Waipunahau, a Māori woman of high status, and George Stubbs, a whaler and trader from Australia.<ref>New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages 2419/1811 V18112419 1A</ref> His grandfather Te Rangi Hīroa and his great-uncle Te Pēhi Kupe were leading rangatira amongst the Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Toa iwi who had settled along the Kāpiti Coast.<ref name="DNZB Parata">{{DNZB|Solomon|Hohepa|2p5|Parata, Wiremu Te Kakakura|25 January 2014}}</ref>

After Stubbs drowned in a boating accident off Kapiti Island in 1838, Parata and his brother were taken by their mother to the pā at Kenakena, where he grew up.

In 1852, he married his second wife, Unaiki; nothing is known of his first marriage. Parata and Unaiki are thought to have had eleven children.

In the late 1860s, Parata became a farmer, and owned about 1,600 sheep by the mid-1870s. He was, by then, relatively wealthy, and owned the largest farm in the area of Waikanae, a town which was initially named after him ("Parata Township"). He hosted the Waikanae Hack Racing Club on his land, a practice subsequently maintained by his son and grandson until 1914.

==Political career== {{NZ parlbox header |nolist=true |align=left }} {{NZ parlbox |term=5th |start={{NZ election link year|1871}} |end=1875 |party=Independent politician |electorate=Western Maori }} {{End}} Parata entered politics in the 1860s. In 1871, he was elected to the House of Representatives as the member for the Western Maori constituency, defeating the incumbent Mete Kīngi Paetahi.<ref>{{cite news |title=Result of the Maori Election |url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=WH18710223.2.8 |access-date=15 March 2014 |work=Wanganui Herald |date=23 February 1871 |volume=IV |issue=1100 |page=2}}</ref> He remained the sitting member of parliament for the duration of the 5th New Zealand Parliament.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|p=225}}

In December 1872, Parata became just the second Māori to be appointed to the Executive Council (thus becoming a Minister of the Crown) joining Wi Katene who had been appointed just a month earlier.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|p=64}}

Parata is described by the ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'' as having been "an astute politician and skilled orator and debater". In Parliament, he expressed the view that Pākehā were not qualified to make informed decisions regarding Māori, and pressed for Māori and Pākehā MPs to work together on laws for the benefit of both peoples. He also called for the appointment of a commission to look into Māori grievances related to land confiscations.<ref name="DNZB Parata" />

In the 1876 election, he was one of three candidates in the Western Maori electorate and came last, beaten by Hoani Nahe and Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|p=222}}<ref name="1876 election">{{cite news |title=Wanganui |url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=AS18760121.2.13.3 |access-date=15 March 2014 |work=Auckland Star |date=21 January 1876 |volume=VII |issue=1850 |page=2}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Maori Election: Western District |url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=BOPT18760119.2.10 |access-date=15 March 2014 |work=Bay of Plenty Times |date=19 January 1876 |volume=IV |issue=351 |page=3}}</ref>

==''Wi Parata v Bishop of Wellington'' (1877)== {{main|Wi Parata v Bishop of Wellington}} Parata is perhaps best remembered for the court case which bears his name. In 1877, he took Octavius Hadfield, the Bishop of Wellington, to the Supreme 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. The 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. No school was built, and, in 1850, the church obtained a Crown grant to the land, without the consent of the iwi. The case (''Wi Parata v the Bishop of Wellington'') was a failure for Parata; Chief Justice James Prendergast ruled that the Treaty of Waitangi was a "simply nullity", having been signed by "primitive barbarians". 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wiremu Te Kakakura Parata |url= https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/wiremu-te-kakakura-parata |publisher=Ministry for Culture and Heritage |date=23 December 2013}}</ref>

==Later life== [[File:The tangi for Wi Parata.jpg|thumb|right|The tangi for Wi Parata]] In the late 1870s, Parata openly supported pacifist leader Te Whiti-o-Rongomai, providing him and his Parihaka community with financial support.

In 1884, Parata granted the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company the right to build their railway across {{convert|7|mi}} of tribal land at Waikanae, but said that the owners would not subdivide their land for sale.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP18840630.2.12?items_per_page=10|title=The Manawatu Railway And The Natives|publisher=The Evening Post|date=30 June 1884|accessdate=3 March 2026}}</ref>

On 29 September 1906, Parata died at Waikanae from injuries sustained after falling from a horse.<ref name="DNZB Parata" />

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==References== *{{cite book |last= Wilson |first= Jim | author-link=Jim Wilson (librarian) |title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 |edition= 4th |orig-date=First published in 1913 |year= 1985 |publisher=V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer |location= Wellington |oclc= 154283103}} * [https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc01Cycl-t1-body-d3-d9-d39.html Biography] on the Victoria University NZETC website

==External links== {{Commons category|Wiremu Parata}} * [https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/name-110512.html Images of Wiremu Parata and related texts] New Zealand Electronic Text Centre

{{s-start}} {{s-par | nz}} {{s-bef | before = Mete Kīngi Paetahi}} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Western Maori | years = 1871–1875 }} {{s-aft | after= Hoani Nahe }} {{end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parata, Wiremu}} Category:1830s births Category:1906 deaths Category:New Zealand MPs for Māori electorates Category:Ngāti Toa people Category:Te Āti Awa people Category:Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Category:Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand Category:New Zealand farmers Category:People from Waikanae Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1875–1876 New Zealand general election Category:19th-century New Zealand politicians