(1) Subject to subsection (2), the whole of any amounts payable on foot of old age (non-contributory) pension to a person while the person is detained in a district or auxiliary mental hospital within the meaning of the Mental Treatment Act, 1945, or while he is detained in any place as an eligible patient, within the meaning of that Act, or in the Central Mental Hospital, shall be appropriated towards the cost of maintenance of the person in the place where he is being detained.
(2) Where the old age (non-contributory) pension of a person is appropriated under subsection (1), the person in charge, within the meaning of the said Act, of the place where the person is detained, or, if the person is detained in the Central Mental Hospital, the Resident Physician and Governor thereof may, in his absolute discretion, do either or both of the following -
(a) pay to the person for his own use such portion of the pension as he considers proper in the particular circumstances, if, in his o