 The Ngati Toa had provided land to the church in 1848 in exchange for a promise that a school for young Ngati 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".