INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT
To the Trustees and Shareholders of John Hancock Patriot
Preferred Dividend Fund:
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements
of John Hancock Patriot Preferred Dividend Fund (the "Fund") for
the year ended May 31, 2000 (on which we have issued our report
dated July 5, 2000), 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, and not to provide
assurance on the Fund's internal control.
The management of the Fund 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 any internal control,
misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be
detected. Also, projections of any evaluation of internal
control to future periods are subject to the risk that the
internal control may become inadequate because of changes in
conditions or that the degree of compliance with policies or
procedures may deteriorate.
Our consideration of the Fund's 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 the Fund's internal control and its operation,
including controls for safeguarding securities, that we consider
to be material weaknesses as defined above as of May 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of
management, the Trustees of John Hancock Patriot Preferred
Dividend Fund, and the Securities and Exchange Commission and is
not intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than
these specified parties.
Deloitte & Touche LLP
July 5, 2000
