James Mackie Deas (1891 – 27 January 1963) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
Biography
Early life and career
Deas was born in Leslie, Fife, Scotland, in 1891. He served in World War I as a member of the Black Watch and later worked for the Ministry of Pensions before moving to New Zealand in 1926. He settled in Papatoetoe and became a district newspaper correspondent for The New Zealand Herald.
He was secretary of the Otahuhu Unemployment Committee during the Great Depression. Deas then became a publisher for several suburban newspapers in South Auckland before joining the reporting staff of The New Zealand Herald during World War II. He moved to Wellington and spent four years as a journalist in the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
