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<PAGE> PAGE 10
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SIGNATURE MICHELLE WHALEN
TITLE COMPLIANCE ADMIN
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Price Waterhouse LLP
December 19, 1997
To the Shareholders and Trustees of
Third Avenue Trust
In planning and performing our audits of the financial statements of Third
Avenue Trust (the "Trust") for the period ended October 31, 1997, we
considered its internal control, including control activities for
safeguarding securities, in order to determine our auditing procedures for
the purpose of expressing our opinion on the financial statements and to
comply with the requirements of Form N-SAR, not to provide assurance on
internal control.
The management of the Trust is responsible for establishing and maintaining
internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and
judgments by management are required to assess the expected benefits and
related costs of control activities. Generally, control activities that
are relevant to an audit pertain to the entity's objective of preparing
financial statements for external purposes that are fairly presented in
conformity with generally accepted accounting principles. Those control
activities include the safeguarding of assets against unauthorized
acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or
irregularities may occur and not be detected. Also, projection of any
evaluation of internal control to future periods is subject to the risk
that it may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the
effectiveness of the design and operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all
matters in internal control that might be material weaknesses under
standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants. A material weakness is a condition in which the design or
operation of any specific internal control components does not reduce to a
relatively low level the risk that errors or irregularities in amounts that
would be material in relation to the financial statements being audited may
occur and not be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal
course of performing their assigned functions. However, we noted no
matters involving internal control, including control activities for
safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses as
defined above as of October 31, 1997.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management
and the Trustees of the Trust and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
/s/ Price Waterhouse LLP
PRICE WATERHOUSE LLP
