To the Editor:
Happening by the Green while the bonfire was taking shape, I saw that it was being built of specially cut units of fresh wood. Presumably the wood is pine or whatever is cheapest but I am shocked by the waste of money by an institution which has had to raise tuition to horrifying heights and by the extravagant and unnecessary use of an increasingly scarce resource.
When I am told by the usual dealers that firewood is practically unobtainable (because, said one, it is going to Japan) it is surely wrong to use so much material on a one-night blaze, however deeply traditional the bonfires are. How many nights could a poor country family be kept warm by this amount of wood? Of course, as with similar waste by the comfortably off, it is probably too difficult to put the wood to the better use. The administration of the College should, however, perhaps give some thought to the possible public offense given by their conspicuous waste.
