Tagata o te Moana. 2014-04-12. 17:30-18:00.

A weekly wrap-up of news, issues and current affairs from the Pacific. The programme is broadcast nationwide every Saturday evening on Radio New Zealand National and is produced by the newsroom of Radio New Zealand International. The following rundown is supplied from the broadcaster’s news system:

1. As aid agencies spent the week trying to assess the impact of what has been called the worst natural disaster in Solomon Islands in memory, it was clear that the recovery from last week's destructive floods will take years.

2. A Fiji opposition grouping [i.e. United Front for a Democratic Fiji] says the New Zealand government's view that good progress is being made towards elections is misguided.

3. Before his Fiji trip Murray McCully was in Papua New Guinea where he announced New Zealand aid funding to help transform the Gordon's Market in Port Moresby as part of plans to grow that country's fresh produce sector.

4. New evidence appears to confirm that the French Polynesian journalist, Jean-Pascal Couraud, was killed by President Gaston Flosse's G-I-P militia in December 1997.

5. Voters on Niue get to elect a new 20 member parliament this weekend, but not a lot of change is expected.

6. It's hoped that a coffee and coconut-oil joint business venture in Vanuatu will encourage other Pacific seasonal workers to set up businesses when they return home.