Orthodox in his economic policies, Smit resigned from Godfrey Huggins' government in 1942 and later formed the right-wing Liberal Party.
Failing to establish himself there, he went to Beira in 1900, working as a tobacconist, and thence to Salisbury in 1905, where at first he sold wares from a barrow, then a mule cart.
In 1931, Smit was elected to the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly in a surprise anti-government by-election victory in Salisbury South, and in 1932 he joined the Reform Party.
[1] As Minister of Finance, Smit introduced a state lottery and a new customs policy: being a strong supporter of the imperial connection with the United Kingdom, he favoured stronger trading links with the UK rather than South Africa.
They had one son, Captain John Walter Smit, 3rd Bn Gold Coast Regiment, RWAFF, who was killed in Burma in 1944.