The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Parata, Wiremu

1435730The Dictionary of Australasian Biography — Parata, WiremuPhilip Mennell

Parata, Wiremu, a Maori member of the House of Representatives, was, with Wiremu Eatene, appointed a member of the Executive Council, and minister without portfolio in the Waterhouse Ministry, at the instance of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Donald McLean, who was anxious to give Maori members a voice in the councils of the country. He occupied this office from Dec. 1872 to Feb. 1876. Wiremu Parata, who has adopted the Maori name of Te Kakakura, is a half-caste by birth, his mother being a Ngatiawa woman of very high rank, He lives in English style at Waikanae, forty miles from Wellington, and occupies the island of Kapiti as a sheep run. He is a man of considerable ability and of oratorical power, habitually speaking in the Maori language, although he has a fair knowledge of English. Although himself always loyal to the Crown, he strongly sympathised with the tribes who suffered during the war, and he has made more than one attempt to get the validity of the proclamation confiscating their lands tested in the law-courts. He is still bent on raising the question in some constitutional form, and having it argued before the Privy Council. The local Government is of course opposed to the reopening of a question involving many millions of money.