Every city of the first class be and is hereby authorized, in the discretion of the councils thereof, to make appropriations, from the treasury of said city, to houses of refuge and institutions for the reformation of juvenile delinquents, to which children of the citizens of said city may, by law, be committed; by the courts, judges or magistrates of the county, within which such city may be situate, and all laws and parts of laws inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.
53 P.S. § 15783