Background
At his father"s death Neville Blyth was sole executor of his estate and, characteristically, first repaid debts his father had incurred in England but legally wiped out by his insolvency.
At his father"s death Neville Blyth was sole executor of his estate and, characteristically, first repaid debts his father had incurred in England but legally wiped out by his insolvency.
He was Treasurer of South Australia from 21 September to 13 October 1868 in the Hart cabinet and the crisis that preceded the formation of Strangways" Government. Forced by ill-health to return to England, he resigned from politics in November 1878 and settled in Sutton in Surrey, living off the rents from his substantial South Australian properties. He died eleven years later.
He strongly opposed State aid to churches and fought for the rights of the working classes.
Blyth supported C. Emily Clark (sister of John Howard Clark) and Catherine Helen Spence in the formation of the "Boarding-out Society" for orphans. She survived him; they had no children.
He was survived also by three brothers — Sir Arthur, West. West. Blyth, of Gover Street, North Adelaide, who was more than five years his senior, and Howard Blyth of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Blyth was elected a member of the South Australian House of Assembly for East Torrens at the general election in March 1860, as colleague of Henry Mildred, represented that district during three Parliaments (in 1865 with Charles Henry Goode as colleague) until July 1867, when he resigned rather than be forced to break a promise, and was succeeded by Daniel Fisher. In April, 1868, he was elected to the fifth Parliament as member of the Assembly for the Encounter Bay, with William Everard as his colleague.