<DOCUMENT>
<TYPE>EX-99.77B ACCT LTTR
<SEQUENCE>3
<FILENAME>auditors.txt
<DESCRIPTION>AUDITORS LETTER
<TEXT>
Report of Ernst & Young LLP, Independent Auditors To the Shareholders and Board
of Trustees of John Hancock Investors Trust In planning and performing our audit
of the financial statements of the John Hancock Investors Trust (the "Trust")
for the year ended December 31, 2002, 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 controls. Generally, controls
that are relevant to an audit pertain to the Trust's objective of preparing
financial statements for external purposes that are fairly presented in
conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.
Those controls include the safeguarding of assets against unauthorized
acquisition, use or disposition. Because of inherent limitations in any internal
control, misstatements due to 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 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 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 its operation, including controls for safeguarding
securities that we consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as of
December 31, 2002. This report is intended solely for the information and use of
management, the Board of Trustees of the John Hancock Investors Trust and the
Securities and Exchange Commission and is not intended to be and should not be
used by anyone other than these specified parties. ERNST & YOUNG LLP Boston,
Massachusetts February 8, 2003

</TEXT>
</DOCUMENT>
