The Pacific: A Tight Little Isle, With Life-Insured Style

Nauru is no Bali Ha'i, but it suits its 2,700 inhabitants down to the ground. Since the ground is almost solid phosphate, the natives support themselves by selling it off at the rate of some 1,800,000 tons a year. The only cloud on the horizon is the fact that by 1995 the 5,263-acre island will be stripped of phosphate (used for fertilizer), leaving a big, barren pothole in the Pacific, 2,500 miles northeast of Sydney. Then Nauru's dark-skinned population will have to move to another, less tight little island.

At any rate, they will leave in style. Last week Nauru's...

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