"Found lying on the railway line a mile north of Portland last night, Gunner Walter Young, 18, son of Mrs. Margaret Blake, of Portland, was taken to the Whangarei Hospital, where he died from severe head injuries. When the 6.20 p.m. goods train from Whangarei arrived at Portland, the engine driver noticed some sugar on the front of the engine. With the fireman he went back along the line towards Whangarei, and found Gunner Young lying unconscious beside the track. Near him was a wrecked railway jigger which appeared to have been travelling in the same direction as the train in the darkness."

[Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 23, 27 July 1942, Page 6]