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Economic development in the South Pacific was a central theme in the July-August 1980 issue of Pacific Magazine. The issue focused on a just-held conference at the East-West Center in Honolulu, "Development The Pacific Way." The conference title itself now dates the meeting, which brought together such regional leaders as the late Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara of Fiji, Prime Minister Tom Davis of the Cooks, the late President Hammer DeRoburt of Nauru, and the late Gov. Peter Tali Coleman of American Samoa.

The Pacific Way: "Comments made by the (conference) delegates reflected a sense of growing frustration over their current inability to fully control the development of their islands and adjoining waters without any outside help or interference. The conference developed no real solution to this problem."

Gone Fishing: "It may well be that South Pacific islanders will have to place greater emphasis on their own reef and lagoon resources - not necessarily to develop them in a modern context, but rather to return to the old, well-tried, traditional methods which served them so well in the past."

Taiwan's Reach: "Taiwan sent five sugarcane experts to Fiji's northern island of Vanua Levu about a year and a half ago, and evidently their fame has spread far afield. When two specialists from the Republic of China's Council for Agricultural Planning and Development visited the South Pacific islands earlier this year, some seven islands asked for Taiwan's help in setting up aquaculture or agricultural projects, including the brand new grass shrimp culture station on Moorea, near Tahiti, which at the present time is only two hectares in size. The requests for assistance came from Tuvalu, New Hebrides, Fiji, Tahiti, Solomon Islands and Micronesia."