This publication contains nine papers prepared for a symposium held at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, June 4-11, 1980, Honolulu, Hawaii USA. The symposium focussed on tropical plant flbers used in papermaking, and comparisons of oriental, Polynesian and western methods of hand papermaking. Several papers report on technical aspects of processing the tropical fibers used at the conference which included pineapple, Abaca, sansevieria, bagasse and bread fruit fibers. Other papers discuss the role of mucilage in Japanese papermaking as well as the place and characteristics of Japanese paper in the history of papermaking. Also included are papers tracing the development of ancient Hawaiian tapa and plants used as dye sources for the decoration of the tapa. -- AATA