Fireworks popped merrily at the Gill hearing yesterday when, incensed with the procedure followed by Governor Ely and Commissioner Dillon, Raymond S. Wilkins, counsel for the Norfolk head, charged that the hearing was "very unfair," and that Gill "has not had a full opportunity to answer the allegations."

Shortly after 10 o'clock, when Dillon called the assembly to order, it became apparent that Wilkins was getting angry, and that he was prepared to drop his passivity of the first two days. Dillon stated that the day's work would begin with allegation 17. Wilkins and Gill insisted that number 16, charging the Superintendent with laxity toward drunken prisoners, be continued from the previous day. When Dillon acquiesced, the following interchange took place:

Wilkins-Dillon Bout

Gill: Smuggled liquor is common to all prisons.

Dillon: That statement has nothing to do with the present case.

Wilkins (heatedly): Much was said yesterday on your side which had nothing to do with the specifications. We did not object. We wish to give a proper perspective, and we assume that we can consider what has been done elsewhere. We wish to make clear our purpose.

Dillon: This, I presume, is for the record. Someone may want to write a book.

Wilkins: Well, you may, if you want to.

A few minutes later, when Gill attempted to read into the testimony a passage from a book by Sheldon Glueck, Instructor at Harvard in Social Ethics, the following tilt ensued:

Dillon: In view of this (Gill's reading), do you still say that you are not being given a full opportunity to answer the specifications?

Wilkins: Yes, since you ask the question, we have not been given a full chance to answer the specifications. We have not been furnished with copies of the Hurley testimony, which you have before you. Then, there is your arbitrary decision that we must proceed with the allegations in numerical order, a thing which we are not prepared to do.

Dillon: Is that unfair?

Hearing Unfair

Wilkins: It is very unfair. Furthermore, we had only a few days in which to prepare our case. I didn't intend to say this, but you asked me.

Dillon: It's all right with me.