<DOCUMENT>
<TYPE>EX-99.77B ACCT LTTR
<SEQUENCE>2
<FILENAME>nsar.txt
<DESCRIPTION>ACCOUNTANT'S LETTER
<TEXT>

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Board of  Trustees  and  Shareholders  of John  Hancock  Bank and  Thrift
Opportunity Fund

In our opinion, the accompanying statement of assets and liabilities,  including
the schedule of  investments,  and the related  statements of operations  and of
changes  in net assets  and the  financial  highlights  present  fairly,  in all
material  respects,  the  financial  position  of John  Hancock  Bank and Thrift
Opportunity  Fund (the  "Fund")  as of  October  31,  2006,  the  results of its
operations,  the changes in its net assets and the financial  highlights for the
year the ended, in conformity with accounting  principles  generally accepted in
the  United  States  of  America.   These  financial  statements  and  financial
highlights   (hereafter   referred  to  as  "financial   statements")   are  the
responsibility  of the Fund's  management;  our  responsibility is to express an
opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit
of these  financial  statements in  accordance  with the standards of the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that
we plan and perform the audit to obtain  reasonable  assurance about whether the
financial  statements  are free of  material  misstatement.  An  audit  includes
examining,  on a test basis,  evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in
the  financial   statements,   assessing  the  accounting  principles  used  and
significant  estimates made by management,  and evaluating the overall financial
statement  presentation.  We believe that our audit, which included confirmation
of  securities as of October 31, 2006 by  correspondence  with the custodian and
brokers, provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. The statement of changes in
net assets of the Fund for the year ended  October 31, 2005,  and the  financial
highlights  for each of the periods  ended on or before  October 31, 2005,  were
audited by another  independent  registered public accounting firm, whose report
dated December 9, 2005, expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Boston, Massachusetts
December 13, 2006
</TEXT>
</DOCUMENT>
