PriceWaterhouse Coopers LLP
December 8, 2000
To the Board of Trustees and Shareholders
of John Hancock World Fund
In planning and performing our audits of the financial
statements of John Hancock Health Sciences Fund (formerly John
Hancock Global Health Sciences Fund), John Hancock Pacific
Basin Equities Fund, and John Hancock European Equity Fund
(each a portfolio of John Hancock World Fund, hereafter
referred to as the "Trust") for the year ended October 31,
2000, we considered their 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
controls. Generally, controls 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 controls include the safeguarding of assets against
unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or
fraud may occur and not be detected. Also, projection of any
evaluation of internal control to future periods is subject to
the risk that controls may become inadequate because of
changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of their
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 one or more of the internal control components
does not reduce to a relatively low level the risk that
misstatements caused by error or fraud 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 and their operation, including controls for
safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material
weaknesses as defined above as of October 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of
the Board of Trustees, management and the Securities and
Exchange Commission and is not intended to be and should not
be used by anyone other than these specified parties.
