After some 13 years of pale-faced exile in England I returned with some excitement to Australia, eager to share in its psychiatric development and perhaps to benefit a little from the fruits of what appears as the international rapacity of Murdoch, Holmes a Court, Elders IXL et al. The second more furtive wish suffered early set-backs as I discovered that the Australian economy was dipping alarmingly and that the Australian dollar, once to my mind as solid as Ayer's Rock, was sinking rather than floating against other currencies. This has meant cut-backs in government expenditure, health included, threatening my first wish as well.