James McCombs

James (Jimmy) McCombs (9 December 1873 – 2 August 1933) was a New Zealand Member of Parliament for Lyttelton.

Biography Early life and career McCombs was born in Treanmore, Mohill, County Leitrim, Ireland, the elder child of George McCombs, a farmer, and his wife, Kate Rourke. He came to New Zealand with his parents in 1876 as a three-year-old. He was educated at Sydenham School and Christchurch East School. Initially he intended to join the ministry of the Anglican Church but later decided to cease theological studies and give his time to social work instead. He still remained involved in the Anglican Church and was an active member of the Church of England Men's Society and, inspired by his religious beliefs, he became a prohibitionist and became a leading member of the prohibitionist movement in Canterbury. He believed that the aims of the Christian Socialism in which he believed were better expressed via community and political activities.

Through his community work McCombs met the like-minded Elizabeth Henderson. Henderson was the president of the Young People's No License League of which McCombs became a committee member of. On 25 June 1903 the two married and had a son and daughter together. During his second spell on the council (where Labour had a majority) McCombs chaired the finance committee. He reduced rates and protected council employees from any further wage cuts in an attempt to both dampen unemployment and stimulate the economy of the city. Neither outcome was successfully achieved however. Holland retired from the mayoralty in 1919; the election was contested by three candidates: Henry Thacker, John Joseph Dougall (Mayor of Christchurch 1911–1912) and McCombs (who at that time was MP for Lyttelton). Thacker won the contest, and McCombs came last.

Member of Parliament

In the , McCombs stood in Christchurch East as an Independent Liberal candidate; at the contest for Avon he was a Liberal-Labour candidate polling 2,817 votes to the official Labour candidate's 798 on the first ballot. In the second ballot he was endorsed as the official Labour candidate, but lost to George Russell.

James McCombs represented the Lyttelton electorate for 20 years from the 1913 by-election (following the death of George Laurenson). McCombs found it difficult to support a family and maintain homes in Wellington and Christchurch on a MP's salary of £8.10.0 a week. Once when rushing to get the ferry home, his suitcase flew open and several rolls of toilet paper fell out. Subsequently, Parliament got toilet paper in paper squares instead of rolls.

McCombs was part of the committee which drafted the founding constitution and programme of the New Zealand Labour Party in 1916. He then became inaugural president of the Labour Party. The following year, he resigned the presidency and his membership of the Labour Party over the state control of liquor issue. Lyons' election was declared void on 13 March 1926, and McCombs was restored as the holder of the electorate.

The had a close result, with McCombs just 32 votes ahead of the Reform Party candidate, Christchurch civil engineer Frederick Willie Freeman.

McCombs held the electorate until 1933, when he died in office. The electorate was then held by his wife Elizabeth McCombs from 1933 to 1935, and his son Terry McCombs from 1935 to 1951.

Death He died at Christchurch on 2 August 1933 from heart failure,