Wi Parata v Bishop of Wellington was an 1877 Supreme Court[a] case on the status of native title to land in New Zealand.
The ruling itself explicitly set precedent for ignoring the Treaty of Waitangi, regarding it a "simple nullity" for domestic law.
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.
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".
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.